IIBRARY  OF  PRINCETON 


THEOLOGICAL  SEN: 'NARy 


BV3790  .B746 
Brengle.  Samuel  Logan,  I860- 
1936. 
The  soul-winner's  secret 


THE 

SOUL-AA^INNER'S 
SECRET. 

BY 

LIEUT.-COL.  S.  L.  BRENGLE, 

AUTHOR  OF 

"HELPS  TO  HOLINESS,"  "HEART-TALKS  ON  HOLINBSS,** 

AND    "  THE  WAY  OF  HOLINESS.'* 


NEW  YORK : 

THE  SALVATION  ARMY    PRINTING   AND    PUBLISHING  HOUS^ 

122  WEST  14th  street. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER.                                                                                PAGE. 

PREFACE             V 

I. 

THE  PERSONAL  EXPERIENCE  OF  THE 

SOUL-WINNER               .           .          1 

II. 

OREDIENCE 10 

III. 

PRAYER 18 

IV. 

ZEAL 27 

V. 

SPIRITUAL    LEADERSHIP               .           .       35 

VL 

REDEEMING  THE  TIME      ...       46 

VII. 

THE       STUDIES       OF       THE       SOUL- 

WINNER                 ...       56 

VIII. 

HEALTH 67 

IX. 

THE    RENEWING    OF    POWER      .           .        82 

X. 

AN    UNDIVIDED    HEART     ...        91 

XI. 

FINANCE 99 

IV  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER.  PAGE. 

XII.       SAVING    TRUTH          ....  107 

Xni.       KEEPING   THE   FLOCK         .           .           .  117 
XIV.      THE      SOUL   -   WHINNER      AND      THE 

CHILDREN             .           .            .  132 
XV.      THE    SOUL- winner's    COMMISSION 

TO  THE  CHILDREN      .           ,  142 

XVI.       DEAL     GENTLY            ....  148 

xviL     "so   spake'' 155 

XVIII.        IMPORTANCE      AND      BENEFITS      OF 

BIBLE    STUDY      .           .           .  164 

XIX.     KING  David's  use  of  his  bible    .  177 


PREFACE. 


Like  Lieut-Colonel  Brengle's  other 
books,  this  new  volume  from  his  facile 
pen  is  intensely  practical.  It  is  a 
natural  sequel  to  his  previous  parlor 
talks  on  holiness.  It  v^ill  be  especially 
welcome  to  Salvation  Army  officers  and 
soldiers,  who  have  been  taught  to  regard 
soul-winning  as  the  main  business  of 
their  lives. 

To  them  the  standard  here  raised  will 
rot     seem    too    high,     while    they    will 


VI  PREFACE. 

gratefully  welcome  the  faithful  warnings 
that  point  out  the  dangers  that  beset  a 
soul-winner's   pathway. 

The  volume  is,  as  usual,  rich  in  Bible 
lore.  Chapter  and  verse  in  grand  pro- 
fusion are  brought  forward  in  support 
of  every  proposition. 

The  testimonies  of  fore-front  warriors 
of  the  Cross  are  also  welded  in  with 
the  main  line  of  argument  in  a  way 
which  cannot  help  but  fasten  the  truth 
upon  the  mind. 

Many  who  have  hitherto  neglected 
this  branch  of  duty,  and  have  suffered 
in  their  own  souls  as  a  consequence, 
will  surely  be  inspired  by  these  pages 
to  rise  up  and  make  a  new  start.  There 
is  not   a   piece   of   advice   in   the   whole 


PREFACE.  VII 

book,  from  cover  to  cover,  that  v^ill  even 
tempt  the  weakest  saint  to  despair,  no 
fancied  heights  which  will  appear  to  be 
beyond   his   reach. 

Certainly  none  can  read  the  book 
without  getting  a  fresh  impetus  to  do 
and  dare  for  God  and  souls,  and  none 
who  carry  out  these  instructions  can 
fail  to  become  in  the  highest,  noblest  and 
most  lasting  sense,  successful  soul- 
winners. 


*/  ^tcyt^AJiXeuur'  fiQ<nr€^^J,^^c.ji^ 


THE 

SOUL-WINNEK'S 
SECKET. 


THE   PERSONAL   EXPERIENCE   OF   THE    SOUL- 
WINNER. 

Every  soul-winner  is  in  the  secret  of  the 
Lord,  and  has  had  a  definite  personal  ex- 
perience of  salvation  and  the  baptism  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  which  brings  him  into  close 
fellowship  and  tender  friendship  and  sym- 
pathy with  the  Saviour.  The  Psalmist 
prayed,  "Hide  Thy  face  from  my  sins,  and 
blot  out  all  my  iniquities.  Create  within  me 
a  clean  heart,  O  God,  and  renew  a  right 
spirit  within  me.  Restore  unto  me  the  joy 
of  Thy  salvation,  and  uphold  me  with  Thy 

B 


2  THE   SOUL-WINNER  S    SECRET. 

free  Spirit.  Then,"  said  he,  "will  I  teach 
transgressors  Thy  ways  and  sinners  shall 
be  converted  unto  Thee."  (Psalm  51:  10-12.) 
He  saw  that  before  he  could  be  a  soul- 
winner,  before  he  could  teach  transgressors 
the  way  of  the  Lord  and  convert  sinners, 
he  must  have  his  own  sins  blotted  out;  he 
must  have  a  clean  heart  and  a  right  spirit; 
he  must  be  a  partaker  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
and  of  God's  joy.  In  short,  he  must  have  a 
definite,  constant,  joyful  experience  of  God's 
salvation  in  his  own  soul  in  order  to  save 
others.  It  was  no  "hope-I-am-saved"  expe- 
rience he  wanted;  nor  was  it  a  conclusion 
carefully  reasoned  out  and  arrived  at  by 
logical  processes;  nor  an  experience  based 
upon  a  strict  performance  of  a  set  round  of 
duties  and  attendance  upon  sacraments,  but 
a  mighty  transformation  and  cleansing  of  his 
whole  spiritual  nature  and  a  glorious  new 
creation  wrought  within  him  by  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

I.  It  must  he  a  definite  experience  that 
tallies  with  the  Word  of  God.  Only  this 
can  give  that  power  and  assurance  to  a  man 
that  will  enable  him  to  lead  and  win  other 
men.  You  must  have  knowledge  before  im- 
parting knowledge.     You  must  have  fire  to 


PERSONAL    EXPERIENCE.  3 

kindle  fire.  You  must  have  life  to  repro- 
duce life.  You  must  know  Jesus  and  be  on 
friendly  terms  with  Him  to  be  able  to  intro- 
duce others  to  Him.  You  must  be  one  with 
Jesus,  and  be  "bound  up  in  the  bundle  of 
life"  with  Him  if  you  would  bring  others 
into   that  life. 

Peter  had  repented  under  the  preaching 
of  John  the  Baptist,  had  forsaken  all  to  fol- 
low Jesus,  and  had  waited  with  prayer  and 
unquenchable  desire  until  he  had  received 
the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  of  fire, 
and  had  been  anointed  with  power  from  on 
high,  before  he  became  the  fearless,  mighty 
preacher  who  won  3,000  converts  in  a  day. 

Paul  was  mightily  converted  on  the  road 
to  Damascus,  and  heard  the  voice  of  Jesus 
tell  him  what  to  do,  and  was  baptized  with 
the  Holy  Ghost  under  the  teaching  of  Ana- 
nias, before  he  became  the  apostle  of  quench- 
less zeal  who  turned  the  world  upside  down. 

Luther  was  definitely  converted  and  jus- 
tified by  faith  on  the  stairway  of  St.  Peter's 
at  Rome  before  he  became  the  invincible  re- 
former who  could  stand  before  popes  and 
emperors  and  set  captive  nations  free. 

George  Fox,  Wesley,  Finney,  Whitefield, 
Jonathan   Edwards,   William   Taylor,   James 


4  THE   SOUL-WINNER  S    SECRET. 

Caughey,  Moody  and  General  Booth,  each 
and  all  had  a  definite  personal  experience 
that  made  them  apostles  of  fire,  prophets  of 
God  and  saviours  of  men.  They  did  not 
guess  that  they  were  saved,  nor  "hope"  so, 
but  they  knew  "whom  they  believed,"  and 
that  they  had  passed  from  darkness  to 
light  and  from  the  power  of  Satan  unto 
God." 

This  experience  was  not  evolution,  but  a 
revolution.  No  evolutionist  ever  has  been 
or  ever  will  be  a  great  soul-winner.  It  is 
not  by  growth  that  men  become  such,  but 
by  revelation.  It  is  not  until  God  bursts 
through  the  veil  and  reveals  Himself  in 
their  hearts  through  faith  in  His  dear  Son, 
and  gives  a  consciousness  of  personal  ac- 
ceptance with  Him,  and  sheds  abroad  His 
love  in  the  heart,  destroying  unbelief,  burn- 
ing away  sin,  consuming  selfishness,  and 
filling  the  soul  with  the  passion  that  filled 
the  heart  of  Jesus,  that  men  become  soul- 
winners. 

The  experience  that  makes  a  man  a  soul- 
winner  is  two-fold.  First,  he  must  know 
his  sins  forgiven;  he  must  have  recognized 
himself  a  sinner,  out  of  friendly  relation 
with  God,  and  careless  of  God's  claim,  heed- 


PERSONAL    EXPERIENCE.  5 

less  of  God's  feelings,  selfishly  seeking  his 
own  way  in  spite  of  divine  love  and  com- 
passion, and  heedless  of  the  awful  conse- 
quences of  separating  himself  from  God,  and 
this  must  have  led  to  repentance  toward 
God,  by  which  I  mean  a  sorrow  for  and  an 
utter  turning  away  from  sin,  followed  by  a 
confiding  trust  in  Jesus  Christ  as  his  Saviour. 
He  must  have  so  believed  as  to  bring  a  rest- 
ful consciousness  that  for  Christ's  sake  his 
sins  have  been  forgiven  and  that  he  has  been 
adopted  into  God's  family  and  made  one  of 
His  dear  children.  This  consciousness  re- 
sults from  what  Paul  calls  "the  witness  of 
the  Spirit,"  and  enables  the  soul  to  cry  out 
in  deep  filial  confidence  and  affection,  "Abba 
Father."  Second :  He  must  be  sanctified ; 
he  must  know  that  his  heart  is  cleansed, 
that  pride  and  self-will  and  carnal  ambition 
and  strife  and  sensitiveness  and  suspicion  and 
unbelief  and  every  unholy  temper  are  de- 
stroyed by  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost — a 
personal  Pentecost — and  the  incoming  of  a 
great  love  for,  and  loyalty  to,  Jesus  Christ, 
before  he  can  be  largely  used  to  win  souls. 

n.  It  must  he  a  constant  experience. 
People  who  frequently  meet  defeat  and  fail 
of   victory   in   their  own  souls   will   not  be 


6  THE   SOUL-WINNER  S    SECRET. 

largely  successful  in  winning  men  to  Jesus. 
The  very  consciousness  of  defeat  makes  them 
uncertain  in  their  exhortation,  doubtful  and 
wavering  in  their  testimony  and  weak  in 
their  faith,  and  this  will  not  be  likely  to 
produce  conviction  and  beget  faith  in  their 
hearers. 

Dr.  Asa  Mahan  lived  in  the  enjoyment  of 
full  salvation  for  over  fifty  years,  and  only 
once  felt  a  slight  uprising  of  temper.  Finney, 
Wesley,  Fletcher  and  Bramwell,  like  Enoch, 
walked  with  God,  and  so  walked  "in  the 
power  of  the  Spirit"  constantly,  and  were 
soul-winners  all  their  lives,  even  to  old 
age. 

Ill,  It  must  he  a  joyful  experience.  "The 
joy  of  the  Lord  is  your  strength,"  said  Ne- 
hemiah.  "Restore  unto  me  the  joy  of  Thy 
salvation,"  prayed  David.  "I  feel  it  my 
duty  to  be  as  happy  as  the  Lord  wants  me 
to  be,"  wrote  McCheyne,  the  gifted  and 
deeply  spiritual  young  Scotch  preacher,  who 
was  wonderfully  successful  in  winning 
souls. 

"Oh,  my  soul  is  very  happy!  Bless  God, 
I  feel  He  is  with  me,"  cried  Caughey,  while 
preaching  his  sermon  on  "The  Striving  of 
the  Spirit."    No  wonder  he  won  souls. 


PERSONAL   EXPERIENCE.  7 

Whitefield  and  Bramwell,  two  of  the 
greatest  soul-winners  the  world  ever  saw, 
were  at  times  in  almost  an  ecstasy  of  joy, 
especially  when  preaching.  And  this  was 
as  it  should  be. 

John  Bunyan  tells  us  how  he  wrote  the 
"Pilgrim's  Progress"  in  his  filthy  Bedford 
dungeon.  He  says,  "So  I  was  led  home  to 
prison,  and  I  sat  me  down  and  wrote  and 
wrote  because  joy  did  make  me  write." 
Hallelujah! 

God  wants  His  people  to  be  full  of  joy. 
"These  things  have  I  spoken  unto  you,  that 
my  joy  might  remain  in  you  and  that  your 
joy  might  be  full,"  said  Jesus.  (John  15: 
II.)  And  again  He  said,  "Ask  and  ye  shall 
receive,  that  your  joy  may  be  full."  (John 
16:  24.)  "And  these  things  write  we  unto 
you  that  your  joy  might  be  full,"  wrote 
John,  (i  John  1:4.)  "The  fruit  of  the 
Spirit  is  love,  joy,"  wrote  Paul,  and  again 
he  writes,  "The  Kingdom  of  God  is  right- 
eousness and  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy 
Ghost,"  "Joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost"  is  an 
oceanic  current  that  flows  unbroken  through 
the  holy,  believing  soul,  though  surrounded 
by  seas  of  trouble  and  compassed  about  by 
infirmities   and  afflictions  and   sorrows. 


8  THE   soul-winner's   SECRET. 

We  have  thought  of  Jesus  as  "the  Man 
of  Sorrows"  until  we  overlook  His  fulness 
of  exultant  joy.     (Luke  lo :  21 ;  John  15  :  11.) 

Joy  can  be  cultivated  and  should  be,  as 
is  faith  or  any  other  fruit  of  the  Spirit. 

(i)  By  appropriating  by  faith  the  words 
that  were  spoken  and  written  for  the  ex- 
press purpose  that  we  might  have  fulness  of 
joy.  "Now  the  God  of  hope  fill  you  with 
all  joy  and  peace  in  believing,"  wrote  Paul 
to  the  Romans,     It  is  by  believing. 

(2)  By  meditating  on  these  words  and 
holding  them  in  our  minds  and  hearts  until 
we  have  gotten  all  the  sweetness  out  of 
them  as  we  would  hold  honey  in  our  mouths. 

(3)  By  exercise,  even  as  faith  or  love  or 
patience  is  exercised.  This  we  do  by  rejoic- 
ing in  the  Lord,  and  praising  God  for  His 
goodness  and  mercy,  and  by  shouting  when 
the  joy  wells  up  in  our  souls  under  the  pres- 
sure of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Many  people 
quench  the  Spirit  of  joy  and  praise,  and  so 
gradually  lose  it.  But  let  them  repent,  con- 
fess, pray  and  believe  and  then  begin  to 
praise  God  again  and  He  will  see  to  it  that 
they  have  something  to  praise  Him  for,  and 
their  joy  will  convict  sinners  and  prove  a 
mighty  means  of  winning  them  to  Jesus. 


PERSONAL   EXPERIENCE.  9 

Who  can  estimate  the  power  there  must 
have  been  in  the  joy  that  filled  the  heart  of 
Peter  and  surged  through  the  souls  and 
beamed  on  the  faces  and  flashed  from  the 
eyes  of  the  one  hundred  and  twenty  fire- 
baptized  disciples,  while  he  preached  that 
Pentecostal  sermon  that  won  three  thou- 
sand bigoted  enemies  to  the  Cross  of  a 
crucified    Christ? 

O  Lord,  still  "make  Thy  ministers  a  flame 
of  fire,"  and  flood  the  world  with  Thy 
mighty  joy! 


10  THE   soul-winner's    SECRET. 


II. 


OBEDIENCE. 


"I  WAS  not  disobedient  to  the  heavenly- 
vision,"  said  Paul,  and  in  that  saying  he 
reveals  the  secret  of  his  wonderful  success 
as  a  soul-winner.  The  soul-winner  is  a  man 
sent  to  God,  and  will  have  visions  and  reve- 
lations and  secret  orders  that,  if  affection- 
ately heeded  and  heartily  and  courageously 
obeyed,  will  surely  lead  to  success.  He  is 
pre-eminently  "a  worker  together  with  God," 
and  a  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  as  such 
must  obey.  It  is  his  business  to  take  orders 
and  carry  them  out. 

"Before  I  formed  thee  I  knew  thee,  and 
before  thou  camest  forth  I  sanctified  thee, 
and  I  ordained  thee  a  prophet  unto  the 
nation,"  said  the  Lord  to  Jeremiah,  and 
when   Jeremiah   interrupted   and   said,   "Ah, 


OBEDIENCE,  11 

Lord  God,  behold  I  cannot  speak,  for  I  am 
a  child,"  the  Lord  said  to  him,  "Say  not  I 
am  a  child,  for  thou  shalt  go  to  all  that  I 
shall  send  thee,  and  whatsoever  I  command 
thee  thou  shalt  speak.  Be  not  afraid  of  their 
faces,  for  I  am  with  thee  to  deliver  thee," 
saith  the  Lord ;  "thou  therefore  gird  up  thy 
loins  and  arise  and  speak  unto  them  all  that 
I  shall  command  thee.  Be  not  dismayed  at 
their  faces  lest  I  confound  thee  before  them." 

"If  they  had  stood  i;i  My  counsel  and 
had  caused  My  people  to  hear  My  words 
then  they  should  have  turned  them  from 
their  evil  way  and  from  the  evil  of  their 
doings,"  said  the  Lord  of  the  false  prophets. 
Jeremiah  23 :  22. 

"Not  what  is  proper  but  what  is  right, 
must  be  my  fearless  and  constant  inquiry. 
Jesus,  still  lead  on !"  was  the  motto  of  Jo- 
seph Parker,  one  of  London's  mightiest 
preachers. 

The  soul-winner  must  get  his  message 
from  God  and  speak  what  and  when  He  com- 
mands. He  is  a  servant  of  God,  a  friend 
of  Jesus,  a  prophet  of  the  Most  High,  an  am- 
bassador of  Heaven  to  the  sons  of  men,  and 
he  must  needs  speak  Heaven's  words  and 
represent  Heaven's  court  and  King  and  not 


12  THE   SOUL- winner's    SECRET. 

seek  his  own  will,  but  seek  the  will  of  Him 
that  sent  him.  "Behold,  to  obey  is  better 
than  sacrifice."  He  must  not  trim  his  course 
to  suit  men,  nor  stop  to  ask  what  this  man 
or  that  shall  do,  but  he  must  attend  strictly 
to  his  Lord  and  steadfastly  follow  Jesus. 
Paul  tells  us  that  Jesus  was  "obedient  unto 
death"  (Phil.  2:  8),  and  again  and  again 
he  calls  himself  "a  servant  of  Jesus  Christ." 
First:  This  obedience  must  be  prompt. 
In  spite  of  the  appeals  and  encouragements 
of  Joshua  and  Caleb,  the  children  of  Israel 
refused  to  go  over  into  Canaan,  but  after- 
wards, seeing  their  sin  in  refusing  to  obey 
promptly,  they  essayed  to  go  over  in  spite 
of  the  warnings  of  Moses  not  now  to  attempt 
it,  and  met  with  bitter  defeat.  Promptness 
would  have  saved  them  forty  years  of 
wandering  in  the  wilderness.  Once  the  soul- 
winner  knows  the  Master's  will,  he  must 
not  delay  to  fulfill  it.  If  he  is  in  doubt  he 
can  take  time  to  assure  himself  as  to  what 
that  will  is.  God  would  not  have  him  run 
before  he  is  sure  he  is  sent,  nor  go  before 
he  has  his  message,  nor  falter  and  possibly 
fall  because  of  uncertainty.  But  once  he  has 
received  his  orders  and  got  his  message,  let 
him  remember  that  "the  King's  business  re- 


OBEDIENCE.  13 

quires  haste;"  let  him  "strike  while  the  iron 
is  hot;"  act  and  speak  when  the  Spirit 
moves,  and  not  like  covetous  Balaam  dilly- 
dally to  see  if  God  will  not  change  His  mind 
and  His  orders. 

Dewey's  matchless  victory  at  Manilla  was 
won,  and  the  geographical  boundaries  of  the 
nations  changed  by  the  promptness  with 
which  he  carried  out  his  orders  to  destroy 
the  Spanish  fleet. 

I  have  noticed  that  if  I  speak  when  the 
Spirit  moves  me,  I  can  usually  introduce 
the  subject  of  religion  and  God's  claims  to 
any  individual  or  company  of  men  with 
happy  results,  but  if  I  delay,  the  opportunity 
slips  by,  not  to  return  again,  or  if  it  does  re- 
turn, it  does  so  with  increased  difficulties. 

Second:  This  obedience  must  be  exact. 
Saul  lost  his  kingdom  and  his  life  because 
his  obedience  was  only  partial.  (See  i  Sam. 
15.)  So  also  did  the  prophet  who  warned  the 
wicked  King  Jeroboam.     (See  i  Kings,  13.) 

"Whatsoever  He  saith  unto  you,  do  it," 
said  Mary  to  the  servants  at  the  marriage  of 
Cana,  and  when  they  obeyed  Him  Jesus 
wrought  His  first  miracle.  And  so  He  will 
work  miracles  to-day  through  His  chosen 
people,  if  they  will  do  whatever  He  saith. 


14  THE   soul-winner's    SECRET. 

The  soul-winner  must  beware  of  quenching 
the  blessed  Spirit,  and  then  he  will  find  that 
it  is  not  himself  but  the  Spirit  that  speaks 
in  him,  so  that  he  can  say  with  Jesus,  'The 
words  that  I  speak,  I  speak  not  of  Myself, 
but  the  Father  that  dwelleth  in  Me  He  doeth 
the  works,"  for  does  not  Jesus  say,  "Whatso- 
ever ye  shall  ask  the  Father  in  My  name, 
that  will  I  do?" 

Third:  This  obedience  must  be  courage- 
ous. "Be  not  afraid  of  their  faces,"  said  the 
Lord  to  Jeremiah.  And  again  He  said  to 
Ezekiel,  "And  thou,  son  of  man,  be  not 
afraid  of  them,  neither  be  afraid  of  their 
words,  though  briers  and  thorns  be  with 
thee,  and  thou  dost  dwell  among  scorpions. 
Be  not  afraid  of  their  words,  nor  be  dis- 
mayed at  their  looks,  though  they  be  a  re- 
bellious house.  And  thou  shalt  speak  My 
words  unto  them,  whether  they  will  hear  or 
whether  they  will  forbear."  He  was  not  to 
say  that  which  would  please  the  people,  but 
that  which  God  gave  him  to  say,  and  that 
without  fear  of  consequences. 

"And  Saul  said  unto  Samuel,  I  have 
sinned,  for  I  have  transgressed  the  com- 
mandments of  the  Lord,  because  I  feared 
the    people    and    obeyed    their    voice."      No 


OBEDIENCE.  15 

wonder  God  cast  him  off  and  gave  his  crown 
and  kingdom  to  another!  God  says,  "Fear 
thou  not,  for  I  am  with  thee;  be  not  dis- 
mayed, for  I  am  thy  God;  I  will  strengthen 
thee ;  yea,  I  will  help  thee ;  yea,  I  will 
uphold  thee  with  the  right  hand  of  My 
righteousness."  Let  the  soul-winner  recog- 
nize that  he  is  on  picket  duty  for  Heaven,  and 
let  him  throw  himself  on  Heaven's  protec- 
tion and  rest  in  the  assurance  of  his  Heavenly 
Father's  care,  and  the  utmost  sympathy  and 
support  of  Jesus,  and  do  his  duty  courage- 
ously, .saying  with  Paul,  "I  can  do  all  things 
through  Christ  which   strengtheneth  me." 

Again  and  again  I  have  comforted  myself 
with  the  assurance  of  good  King  Jehosa- 
phat,  "Deal  courageously  and  the  Lord  shall 
be  with  the  good,"  and  encouraged  myself 
with  the  bold  declaration  of  Peter  to  the 
enraged  and  outwitted  Sanhedrim,  "We 
ought  to  obey  God  rather  than  men,"  and 
measured  myself  by  the  self-forgetful  words 
of  Nehemiah,  "Should  such  a  man  as  I  flee, 
and  who  is  there  that  being  as  I  am  would 
go  into  the  temple  to  save  his  life?  I  will  not 
go  in."  (Neh.  6:  ii.)  And  of  Paul, 
"Neither  count  I  my  life  dear  unto  myself, 
so  that  I  might  finish  my  course  with  joy 


16  THE  soul-winner's   SECRET. 

and  the  ministry  which  I  have  received  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  to  testify  the  gospel  of  the 
grace  of  God."  And  of  the  three  Hebrew 
children:  "O  Nebuchadnezzar,  we  are  not 
careful  to  answer  thee  in  this  matter.  If  it 
be  so,  our  God  whom  we  serve  is  able  to  de- 
liver us  from  the  burning  fiery  furnace,  and 
He  will  deliver  us  out  of  thine  hand,  O 
king;  but  if  not,  O.  king,  be  it  known  unto 
thee  that  we  will  not  serve  thy  gods  nor 
worship  the  golden  image  which  thou  hast 
set  up." 

That  is  the  kind  of  stuff  out  of  which  God 
makes  soul-winners. 

Do  you  ask,  how  can  a  man  get  such  a 
spirit  of  courageous  obedience?  I  answer, 
by  dying — dying  to  your  selfish  interests, 
dying  to  the  love  of  praise,  the  fear  of  cen- 
sure, the  hope  of  reward  in  this  world,  and 
by  a  dare-devil  faith  in  the  reward  that  God 
will  give  in  the  world  to  come ;  by  a  steadfast 
looking  unto  and  following  of  Jesus,  and  a 
constant  comparison  of  time  with  eternity. 
I  read  the  other  day  that  it  was  only  dead 
men  who  were  living  preachers. 

Fourth:  The  obedience  must  be  glad. 
The  command  is,  "Serve  the  Lord  with  glad- 
ness."    "I  delight  to  do  Thy  will,  O  God," 


OBEDIENCE.  17 

wrote  the  Psalmist.  There  was  no  grudging 
about  his  obedience;  it  was  his  joy.  It  is 
a  love  service  God  wants,  and  that  is  always 
a  joy  service.  "My  meat  and  My  drink  is 
to  do  the  will  of  Him  that  sent  Me,"  said 
Jesus,  and  Paul  declares,  "If  I  do  this  thing 
willingly,  I  have  a  reward."  It  is  a  glad  love 
service  God  calls  us  to,  and  once  we  are 
wholly  His  and  the  Comforter  abides  in  us, 
we  shall  not  find  it  irksome  to  obey,  and  by 
obedience  we  shall  both  save  ourselves  and 
others  to  whom  the  Lord  may  send  us. 


18  THE   soul-winner's   SECRET. 


III. 


Prayer  is  the  way  of  approach  to  God,  and 
the  soul-winner  keeps  it  open  by  constant 
use.  It  is  the  channel  by  which  all  spiritual 
blessings  and  power  are  received,  and  there- 
fore the  life  of  the  soul-winner  must  be  one 
of  ceaseless  prayer.  "Pray  without  ceasing," 
wrote  Paul.  It  is  the  breath  of  the  soul,  and 
other  things  being  equal,  it  is  the  secret  of 
power. 

It  is  written  of  Jesus,  "And  it  came  to 
pass  in  those  days  that  He  went  out  into 
a  mountain  to  pray,  and' continued  all  night 
in  prayer  to  God."  And  this  was  followed 
by  mighty  works. 

What  an  amazing  statement  is  this: 
"Whatsoever  things  ye  desire  when  ye  pray, 
believe  that  ye   receive  them,   and  ye   shall 


PRAYER.  19 

have  them;"  and  this:  "Verily,  verily,  I 
say  unto  you,  Whatsoever  ye  shall  ask  the 
Father  in  My  name,  He  will  give  it  you ;" 
and  this :  "If  ye  abide  in  Me  and  My  words 
abide  in  you,  ye  shall  ask  what  ye  will  and  it 
shall  be  done  unto  you !"  And  yet,  amazing 
as  they  are,  there  they  stand  in  "the  Scrip- 
ture of  truth,"  a  challenge  to  every  child 
of  God  who  is  jealous  for  God's  glory,  who 
longs  for  the  triumph  of  righteousness  and 
who  seeks  the  salvation  of  souls. 

The  soul-winner  must  pray  in  secret;  he 
must  get  alone  with  God  and  pour  his  heart 
into  his  Heavenly  Father's  ear  with  inter- 
cessions and  pleadings  and  arguments,  if  he 
would  have  good  success.  There  is  no  sub- 
stitute for  much  wide-awake,  expectant, 
secret  waiting  upon  God  for  the  outpouring 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  gift  of  wisdom, 
strength,  courage,  hope,  faith,  discernment 
of  times  and  spirits,  and  a  glowing,  burning, 
comprehensive  message  from  Him  to  the 
people.  H  men  fail  at  this  point,  they  will 
in  due  time  fail  at  every  point.  Jesus  said: 
"When  thou  prayest,  enter  into  thy  closet, 
and  when  thou  hast  shut  thy  door,  pray  to 
thy  Father  which  is  in  secret,  and  thy  Father 
which    seeth    in    secret,    shall    reward    thee 


20  THE   soul-winner's    SECRET. 

openly."  Here,  then,  is  the  secret  of  success 
— »closet  communion  and  counse(lings  and 
conversations  with  God,  who  is  our  Father, 
and  who  can  and  will  no  more  turn  away 
from  us  when  we  come  in  the  spirit  of  an 
obedient  and  affectionate  child,  than  can  the 
sunlight  when  we  throw  open  the  windows 
and  doors  and  stand  in  its  beams.  I  say  it 
reverently.  He  cannot  turn  away  from  us,  but 
will  surely  reward  us,  and  that  openly,  be- 
cause He  said  He  would,  and  He  cannot 
lie. 

Prayer  must  be  definite.  Once,  when 
Jesus  was  leaving  Jericho  with  His  disciples 
and  a  great  number  of  people,  blind  Bar- 
timeus  sat  by  the  wayside  begging,  and 
when  he  heard  Jesus  was  passing  by,  he 
began  to  cry  out  and  say :  "Jesus,  Thou 
Son  of  David,  have  mercy  on  me,"  but 
that  prayer  was  not  definite — it  was  alto- 
gether too  general.  Jesus  knew  what  Bar- 
timeus  wanted,  but  He  desired  Bartimeus 
to  state  exactly  what  he  desired,  and  said  to 
him: 

"What  wilt  thou  that  I  should  do  unto 
thee?"  Then  the  blind  man  prayed  a  definite 
prayer. 

"Lord,  that  I  might  receive  my  sight,"  and 


PRAYER.  21 

the  definite  prayer  then  received  a  definite 
answer,  for  Jesus  said  unto  him : 

"Go  thy  way,  thy  faith  hath  made  thee 
whole,"  and  immediately  he  received  his 
sight. 

We  should  be  as  definite  when  we  go  to 
God,  in  asking  Him  for  what  we  want,  as 
we  are  when  we  go  to  the  store.  The  sales- 
man is  prepared  to  sell  us  anything  and 
everything  in  the  store,  but  he  in  reality 
sells  us  nothing  until  we  tell  him  what  we 
want,  and  so  it  is  with  our  Heavenly  Father. 

Our  prayers  must  be  bold.  Paul  said: 
"We  have  a  great  High  Priest  who  has 
passed  into  the  heavens,  Jesus,  the  Son  of 
God^  who  is  touched  with  the  feelings  of 
our  infirmities^  and  was  tempted  in  all  points 
like  as  we  are,  yet  without  sin,"  and  adds: 
"Let  us  come  boldly  unto  the  throne  of  grace, 
that  we  may  obtain  mercy  and  find  grace  in 
time  of  need."  Of  course  this  boldness  must 
be  coupled  with  humility,  but  the  greater 
the  humility,  the  greater  the  boldness,  if 
mixed  with  faith.  I  have  often  been  amused 
and  amazed  at  the  boldness  with  which  chil- 
dren come  to  their  parents  for  the  things 
they  need  and  the  things  they  want,  and  how 
gladly  does  the  true  parent  respond  to  the 


22  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

child's  request,  especially  if  it  expresses  a 
genuine  need  !  And  Jesus  said :  "If  ye  then 
being  evil,  know  how  to  give  good  gifts 
unto  your  children,  how  much  more  will 
your  Heavenly  Father  give  good  things  to 
them  that  ask  Him." 

The  devil  stands  mocking  and  teasing  the 
praying  soul,  to  drive  him  from  his  knees 
and  from  his  Father's  face,  but  let  him 
rather  come  boldly  in  the  name  of  Jesus 
and  wait  patiently  for  the  things  he  desires, 
and  he  shall  have  an  abundant  reward.  It 
is  not  our  Heavenly  Father's  will  to  dis- 
appoint His  trusting  children  but  rather  to 
give  them  their  utmost  desire,  yea,  "ex- 
ceeding abundantly  above  all  they  ask  or 
think,"  for  His  heart  is  all  love  toward 
them;  therefore  let  them  not  be  timid  and 
wavering,  but  steadfast  and  bold  as  His  dear 
children. 

Prayer  must  be  importunate,  persevering. 
Jesus  teaches  this  very  clearly  in  His  par- 
able of  the  importunate  friend.  "Which 
of  you,"  said  Jesus,  "shall  have  a  friend  and 
shall  go  unto  him  at  midnight  and  shall  say 
unto  him,  'Friend,  lend  me  three  loaves, 
for  a  friend  of  mine  in  his  journey  has  come 
to  me,  and  I  have  nothing  to  set  before  him/ 


PRAYER.  23 

and  he  from  within  shall  say,  'Trouble  me 
not,  the  door  is  now  shut,  and  my  children 
are  with  me  in  bed.  I  cannot  rise  and  give 
thee,'  I  say  unto  you,  though  he  will  not  rise 
and  give  him  because  he  is  his  friend,  yet  be- 
cause of  his  importunity,  he  will  rise  and  give 
him  as  many  as  he  needeth;"  and  then  Jesus 
adds:  "Ask  and  it  shall  be  given  you,  seek 
and  ye  shall  find,  knock  and  it  shall  be 
opened  unto  you.  For  every  one  that 
asketh  receiveth,  and  he  that  seeketh  find- 
eth,  and  to  him  that  knocketh  it  shall  be 
opened  unto  him;"  by  which  Jesus  means 
to  teach  that  we  are  to  hold  on  in  prayer 
till  we  get  an  answer.  If  the  answer  is 
delayed,  our  own  hearts  will  be  searched, 
the  purity  of  our  motives  will  be  proved, 
and  our  faith  will  be  purified,  tried,  devel- 
oped and  strengthened  for  future  and 
greater  triumph. 

Jesus  prayed  three  times  that  the  cup  of 
death  in  the  garden  of  Gethsemane  might 
pass  from  Him.  It  was  not  death  on  the 
Cross,  but  death  in  the  garden  He  feared, 
and  the  apostle  tells  us,  in  Hebrews  5:  7, 
that  he  was  heard.  Daniel  abstained  from 
all  pleasant  food  for  three  weeks  at  one 
time,   and  prayed  until   God  appeared  unto 


24  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

him  and  said:  "O  man,  greatly  beloved, 
fear  not;  peace  be  unto  thee;  be  strong; 
yea,  be  strong;"  and  added,  "I  will  show 
thee  that  which  is  noted  in  the  Scriptures 
of  truth,"  and  then  told  him  all  that  he 
desired  to  know.  And  Elijah,  after  his 
victory  over  the  priests  of  Baal,  sent  his 
servant  seven  times  to  look  for  the  cloud 
that  should  bring  rain,  while  he  bowed  his 
face  between  his  knees,  and  poured  out  his 
heart  to  God  in  prayer  until  the  cloud  ap- 
peared that  should  bring  the  floods  of  rain. 
Miiller  sometimes  prayed  every  day,  and 
often  several  times  a  day,  and  that  for 
months  and  years,  for  some  things  he  wanted, 
before  the  answer  came,  but  come  it 
did,  in  due  time.  Though  the  answer  be 
delayed,  it  is  not  God's  purpose  to  deny 
us  without  letting  us  know  the  reason 
why. 

Prayer  must  be  for  the  glory  of  God 
and  according  to  His  will.  If  we  ask  things 
simply  to  gratify  our  own  desires,  God 
cannot  grant  them.  James  said  of  certain 
ones,  "Ye  ask  ....  but  ye  ask  amiss,  that  ye 
may  consume  it  upon  your  lusts,"  but  John 
said,  "This  is  the  confidence  that  we  have  in 
Him,    that,    if    we    ask    anything    according 


PRAYER.  25 

to  His  will,  He  heareth  us ;  and  if  we  know 
that  He  heareth  us  ....  we  know  that  we 
have  the  petitions  that  we  desired  of  Him." 
Jesus  said,  "If  ye  abide  in  Me  and  My  words 
abide  in  you  ye  shall  ask  what  ye  will  and 
it  shall  be  done  unto  you." 

We  are  to  ask  according  to  the  things 
revealed  as  His  will  in  His  Word,  and  ac- 
cording to  the  principles  laid  down  therein; 
therefore  we  should  study  His  Word  con- 
stantly and  hide  it  in  our  own  hearts,  and 
see  to  it  that  we  hide  ourselves  in  His  heart 
and  thus  be  filled  with  the  truth;  we  shall 
then  not  ask  amiss,  and  being  filled  with 
the  Spirit,  we  shall  not  be  denied. 

Prayer  must  be  mixed  with  faith — must 
be  believing  prayer.  "Whatsoever  ye  de- 
sire when  ye  pray,  believe  that  ye  receive 
and  ye  shall  have."  Oh,  what  a  victory  I 
got  one  morning  over  the  devil,  when  hf 
tried  to  shake  my  faith  and  confidence !  I 
laid  hold  of  that  promise  and  wrestled 
through  to  the  solid  rock  of  believing 
prayer,  and  had  one  of  the  most  glorious 
soul-saving  days  in  my  life!  The  man 
whose  faith  is  constantly  wavering  shali 
receive  nothing  from  the  Lord.  (James  i: 
6-7.) 


26  THE   soul-winner's   secret. 

Finally,  prayer  must  be  in  the  name  of 
Jesus.  "Whatsoever  ye  will  ask  in  My 
name  that  will  I  do,  that  the  Father  may 
be  glorified  in  the  Son,"  said  Jesus. 

"The  Blood,  the  Blood  is  all  my  plea," 
and  with  that  plea  the  vilest  sinner  may 
come,  while  the  child  of  God  may  ap- 
proach with  unabashed  boldness  into  the 
presence  of  his  Heavenly  Father  and  claim 
all  the  resources  of  Heaven  in  his  warfare 
against  sins  in  his  effort  to  save  sinners  and 
build  up  the  kingdom  of  God. 


ZEAL.  27 


IV. 


ZEAL. 


It  is  said  that  Sheridan  went  to  battle 
with  all  the  fury  of  a  madman,  and  reck- 
lessly exposed  himself  to  the  shot  and  shell 
of  the  enemy.  He  told  General  Horace 
Porter  that  he  never  went  into  a  battle 
from  which  he  cared  to  come  back  alive 
unless  he  came  as  a  victor.  This  desperation 
made  him  an  irresistible  inspiration  to  his 
own  troops  and  enabled  him  to  hurl  them  like 
thunderbolts  against  his  foes.  If  he  became 
so  desperate  in  killing  men,  how  much  more 
desperate,  if  possible,  should  we  become  in 
our  desire  and  effort  to  save  them! 

It  was  written  of  Jesus,  "The  zeal  of 
Thine  house  hath  eaten  me  up,"  and  so  it 
can  be  of  every  great  soul-winner. 

Not    until    a    man    can    say    with    Paul, 


28  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

"Neither  count  I  my  life  dear  unto  myself;" 
and  "I  am  ready  to  die  for  the  name  of 
the  Lord  Jesus,"  can  he  hope  to  be  largely 
used  in  winning  souls.  He  that  is  anxious 
about  his  dinner  and  eager  to  get  to  bed  at 
a  reasonable  hour  and  concerned  about  his 
salary,  and  oversolicitous  about  his  health, 
and  querulous  about  his  reputation,  and  the 
respectability  and  financial  condition  of  his 
appointment,  and  afraid  of  weariness  and 
painfulness  and  headache  and  heartache, 
and  a  sore  throat,  may  make  a  very  respect- 
able field  of^cer  or  parson,  but  not  a  great 
soul-winner. 

There  are  various  kinds  of  zeal  which 
should  be  avoided  as  deadly  evils. 

First:  Partial  zeal  like  that  of  Jehu. 
(2  Kings  10:  15-31.)  God  set  him  to  destroy 
the  wicked  house  of  Ahab  and  the  worship 
of  Baal,  and  he  did  so  with  fury,  "but  Jehu 
took  no  heed  to  walk  in  the  law  of  the  God 
of  Israel  with  all  his  heart,  for  he  departed 
not  from  the  sins  of  Jeroboam  which  made 
Israel  to  sin,"  and  in  due  time  God  had  to 
cut  oflf  his  house  as  well. 

This  kind  of  zeal  is  frequently  seen  in 
those  who  violently  attack  one  sort  of  sin, 
while  probably  they  themselves  are  secretly 


ZEAL.  29 

indulging  in  some  other  sin.  Such  people 
are  usually  not  only  intolerant  of  the  sin, 
but  also  of  the  sinner,  while  true  zeal  makes 
one  infinitely  tender  and  patient  towards 
the  sinner,  while  absolutely  uncompromis- 
ing with  his  sin. 

Second:  Party  zeal  like  that  of  the 
Pharisees  and  Sadducees.  In  these  days  it 
takes  the  form  of  excessive  sectarian  and 
denominational  zeal  and  makes  bigots  of 
men.  Zeal  for  the  particular  church  or 
organization  to  which  one  belongs  is  right 
within  certain  limits.  We  are  converted 
through  the  instrumentality  of  a  certain 
religious  organization,  and  we  become  chil- 
dren of  its  household,  or  we  are  led  into  it 
by  the  Holy  Spirit  through  a  blessed,  divine 
affinity  with  its  members,  methods,  spirit 
and  doctrine,  and  we  should  in  that  case 
be  loyal  and  true  to  its  leaders  who  are 
over  us  in  the  Lord  and  who  watch  for  our 
souls,  and  follow  them  as  they  follow  Christ. 
We  should  also  be  loyal  to  the  principles 
of  the  organization  so  far  as  they  harmon- 
ize with  the  word  of  God,  and  we  should 
seek  in  all  true  ways,  by  prayer  and  suppli- 
cation and  ceaselessly  zealous  work  to  build 
up  this   organization   in   holiness   and    right- 


30  THE   soul-winner's    SECRET. 

eousness,  and  this  we  can  do  with  all  our 
might,  if  we  do  it  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  can 
be  assured  that  God  is  well  pleased  with 
us.  But  we  must  at  the  same  time  beware 
of  a  party  spirit  that  would  despise  other 
work  and  workers  or  tear  them  down  that 
we  may  rise  on  their  ruins.  Such  zeal  is  from 
beneath  and  not  from  above.  It  is  contrary 
to  that  "love  that  seeketh  not  her  own,"  and 
that  "looketh  not  upon  her  own  things,  but 
also  upon  the  things  of  others,"  and  will 
come  back,  boomerang-like,  upon  our  own 
pates,  and  bring  ruin  upon  ourselves. 

"For  the  love  of  God   is  broader 
Than  the  measure  of  man's  mind, 

And  the  heart  of  the  Eternal 
Is  most  wonderfully  kind." 

And  true  zeal  makes  men  like  that. 

Third:  The  zeal  of  ignorance.  Paul  said 
of  his  kinsmen,  the  Jews,  "My  heart's 
desire  and  prayer  to  God  for  Israel  is  that 
they  might  be  saved,  for  I  bear  them  record 
that  they  have  a  zeal  for  God  but  not  ac- 
cording to  knowledge,  for  they,  being  ignor- 
ant of  God's  righteousness  and  going  about 
to  establish  their  own  righteousness,  have 


ZEAL.  31 

not  submitted  themselves  unto  the  righteous- 
ness of  God."     (Romans  lo:   1-3.) 

True  zeal  is  from  above.  Its  source  is  in 
the  mountains  of  the  Lord's  holiness,  and 
its  springing  fountains  in  the  deep  cool  val- 
leys of  humility.  It  is  born  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  springs  from  a  knowledge  of 
"the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus."  This  knowl- 
edge is  two-fold: 

First:  It  is  the  knowledge  of  the  dread 
condition  of  the  sinner  without  Christ — his 
slavery  to  Satan;  the  inherited  depravity 
of  his  nature;  his  bondage  to  sin,  his  love 
of  it;  his  enmity  toward  God,  of  which  he 
is  probably  not  aware;  his  guilt;  his  help- 
lessness and  his  ignorance  of  the  way  back 
to  his  Heavenly  Father's  house  and  happi- 
ness, and  his  awful  danger,  if  he  neglects 
the  offer  of  salvation  and  life  in  Jesus 
Christ. 

Second:  It  is  the  knowledge  of  the  un- 
speakable gift  of  God,  of  the  possibilities 
of  grace  for  the  vilest  sinner,  of  the  Father's 
pitying,  yearning  love,  of  sins  forgiven, 
guilt  removed,  adoption  into  the  Father's 
family,  illumination,  consolation,  guidance, 
keeping,  depravity  destroyed,  cleansing 
through    the    Blood,    sanctification    by    the 


32  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

baptism  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  of  salvation 
from  the  uttermost  to  the  uttermost;  of  un- 
broken fellowship  with  the  Father  and  His 
Son  Jesus  Christ  through  the  eternal  Spirit; 
of  a  life  of  blessed  service  and  fruit-bearing, 
and  of  a  faith  and  hope  that  bear  the 
spirit  up  over  sorrows  and  trials  and  losses 
and  pain  and  sickness,  enabling  it  at  last  to 
cry  out  in  supreme  victory  and  holy  tri- 
umph: "O  Death,  where  is  thy  sting,  O 
Grave,  where  is  thy  victory?  Thanks  be 
to  God  which  giveth  us  the  victory  through 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

True  zeal  makes  one  faithful  to  Jesus 
and  the  souls  for  whom  He  died.  It  led 
Paul  during  his  three  years'  appointment 
at  Ephesus  "to  warn  everyone  night  and 
day  with  tears/'  to  "serve  the  Lord  with 
all  humility,"  to  keep  back  no  truth  that  was 
profitable  for  the  people,  but  to  show  them 
and  teach  them  "publicly  and  from  house  to 
house,  testifying  both  to  the  Jews  and  also 
to  the  Greeks,  repentance  toward  God  and 
faith  toward  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  (Acts 
20.)  He  was  not  content  simply  to  get 
sinners  to  accept  Jesus  as  their  Saviour, 
but  taught  them  that  "Christ  in  you  is 
the  hope  of  glory,  whom  we  preach,  warn- 


ZEAL.  33 

ing  every  man  and  teaching  every  man  in 
all  wisdom  that  we  may  present  every  man 
perfect  in  Christ  Jesus,  whereunto  I  labor, 
striving  according  to  his  working  which 
worketh  in  me  mightily."  (Col.  27:  29.) 
Paul  was  jealous  for  the  perfection  in  love 
and  loyalty  of  all  his  converts,  and  his 
zeal  led  him  to  seek  with  all  his  might  to 
lead  them  all  into  this  blessed  experience. 
And  as  was  Paul,  so  also  was  Baxter,  who 
labored  indefatigably  in  spite  of  life-long 
sickness,  and  at  times  almost  in  intolerable 
pain,  for  the  perfection  of  his  people.  And 
so  also  was  Wesley  and  Fox  and  General 
and  Mrs.  Booth,  and  so  will  be  every  soul- 
winner  who  is  full  of  the  zeal  of  God. 

True  zeal  is  sacrificial.  Jesus,  consumed 
with  zeal  for  the  glory  of  God  in  the  sav- 
ing and  sanctifying  of  men,  "was  led  as  a 
lamb  to  the  slaughter."  Isaiah,  who  fore- 
saw the  humiliation  and  sacrificial  life  and 
death  of  Jesus,  said  by  inspiration,  "I  gave 
my  back  to  the  smiters  and  my  cheek  to 
them  that  plucked  off  the  hair;  I  hid  not 
my  face  from  shame  and  spitting."  And 
again  Isaiah  said,  "He  is  despised  and 
rejected  of  men;  a  man  of  sorrows  and 
acquainted  with  grief;  He  was  despised  and 


34  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

we  esteemed  Him  not.  Surely  He  hath 
borne  our  griefs  and  carried  our  sorrows: 
yet  we  did  esteem  Him  stricken,  smitten 
of  God  and  afflicted.  But  He  was  wounded 
for  our  transgressions,  He  was  bruised  for 
our  iniquities;  the  chastisement  of  our  peace 
was  upon  Him,  and  with  His  stripes  we  are 
healed.  The  Lord  hath  laid  on  Him  the 
iniquity  of  us  all."  (Isa.  53.)  He  poured 
out  His  soul  unto  death  for  us,  He  gave 
His  life  a  ransom  for  men.  Bless  His  name! 
And  the  gift  of  His  Spirit  kindles  and  sus- 
tains this  same  sacrificial  zeal  in  the  hearts 
of  all  true  soul-winners. 

"Enlarge,  inflame  and  fill  my  heart 
With  boundless  charity  divine, 

So  shall  I  all  my  strength  exert, 

And  love  them  with  a  zeal  like  Thine; 

And  lead  them  to  Thy  open  side, 

The  sheep  for  whom  their  Shepherd  died." 


SPIRITUAL  LEADERSHIP.  35 


V. 


SPIRITUAL     LEADERSHIP. 


The  soul-winner  must  have  the  power 
of  spiritual  leadership,  and  spiritual  leader- 
ship is  a  thing  of  the  Spirit,  and  not  of 
birth,  or  rank,  or  title,  or  education,  or  cir- 
cumstances. Here  is  the  secret  of  the  power 
of  humble  Salvation  Army  officers  from  the 
lowly  walks  of  life. 

Joseph  was  a  youthful  prisoner  in  an 
Egyptian  dungeon,  but  he  walked  with 
God,  and  was  "a  prosperous  man/'  for 
God  was  with  him,  and  one  day  he  reached 
his  rightful  place  next  to  Pharaoh's  throne. 
(Gen.  39  and  40.) 

Paul  was  a  prisoner  under  Roman  guards 
on  board  ship,  hastening  to  Caesar's  judg- 
ment bar;  but  one  day,  God's  winds  made 
the  sea  to  boil,  and  winds  and  waves  smote 


36  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

the  ship,  and  when  men's  hearts  failed  them 
for  fear,  Paul,  by  right  of  spiritual  kingship, 
became  the  master  of  all  on  board.  (Acts 
27.) 

I  knew  a  Lieutenant,  a  quiet,  modest, 
thoughtful,  prayerful,  faithful,  humble,  holy 
lad,  of  moderate  ability,  stationed  with  an 
Ensign,  at  whose  feet  the  Ensign  and  his 
wife  sat  for  spiritual  counsel,  though  the 
Lieutenant  knew  it  not.  They  hung  on  his 
God-wise  words,  and  remembered  his  ex- 
ample, and  treasured  his  spirit,  and  talked 
to  me  about  his  saintHness  and  Christlike- 
ness  long  after  he,  as  Captain,  had  left 
them  for  a  corps  by  himself. 

They  commanded  the  corps,  but  he  held 
spiritual  supremacy  because  he  walked  with 
God,  and  God  was  with  him  and  in  him. 

Spiritual  leadership  is  not  won  nor  es- 
tablished by  promotion,  but  by  many 
prayers,  tears  and  confessions  of  sin  and 
heart-searchings  and  humblings  before  God, 
and  self-surrender  and  a  courageous  sacri- 
fice of  every  idol  and  a  bold  and  deathless, 
and  uncompromising  and  uncomplaining  em- 
brace of  the  Cross  and  an  eternal,  unfalter- 
ing looking  unto  Jesus  crucified.  It  is  not 
gained   by   seeking   great   things   for   our- 


SPIRITUAL  LEADERSHIP.  37 

selves  (Jer.  45:  5),  but  rather,  like  Paul, 
by  counting  those  things  that  were  gain, 
loss  for  Christ.  Hear  him:  "What  things 
were  gain  to  me  those  I  counted  loss  for 
Christ.  Yea^  doubtless,  and  I  count  all 
things  but  loss  for  the  excellency  of  the 
knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus  my  Lord,  for 
whom  I  have  suffered  the  loss  of  all  things, 
and  do  count  them  but  dung  that  I  may  win 
Christ.     (Phil.  3:  7,  8.) 

That  is  a  great  price,  but  it  must  be  un- 
flinchingly paid  by  him  who  would  be  not 
merely  a  nominal,  but  a  real  spiritual 
leader  of  men — a  leader  whose  power  is 
recognized  by  three  worlds  and  felt  in 
heaven,  earth  and  hell.  Moses  gained 
this  spiritual  leadership  among  Pharaoh's 
palace  halls  and  Sinai's  solitudes  and  fast- 
nesses, when  he  "refused  to  be  called  the 
son  of  Pharaoh's  daughter,  choosing  rather 
to  suffer  affliction  with  the  people  of  God 
than  to  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  sin  for  a 
season;  esteeming  the  reproach  of  Christ 
greater  riches  than  the  treasures  of  Egypt." 

Spiritual  leaders  are  not  made  by  man, 
*»or  any  combination  of  men.  Neither  con- 
ferences, nor  synods,  nor  councils  can 
make  them,  but  only  God. 


•38  THE  SOUL- winner's   SECRET. 

Spiritual  power  is  the  outcome  of  spiritual 
life,  and  all  life,  from  that  of  the  moss 
and  lichen  on  the  wall  to  that  of  the  arch- 
angel before  the  Throne,  is  from  God, 
Therefore  let  those  who  aspire  to  this  leader- 
ship pay  the  price,  and  seek  it  from  God. 

Who  made  Elijah  and  John  the  Baptist 
— hairy,  uncouth  men  of  the  wilderness 
and  desert — prophets  who  awed  kings  and 
swayed   nations?      God. 

Who  took  Moses  from  the  universities 
of  Egypt  and  the  palaces  of  Pharaoh  and 
after  drilling  him  among  flocks  of  sheep 
on  the  back  side  of  the  desert  for  forty 
years,  made  him  the  meek,  but  unconquer- 
able leader  of  two  millions  of  slaves,  and  the 
law-giver  and  fountain-head  of  jurispru- 
dence  for  all   time?     God. 

Who  took  the  baby  Samuel  and  put  into 
his  mouth  prophetic  words  to  the  aged 
priest  Eli,  and  made  him  spiritual  leader 
of  Israel?     God. 

Who  took  the  boy  David,  trained  to  feed 
harmless,  patient  sheep,  and  put  courage 
into  his  heart,  and  nerved  his  arm  to 
fight  the  lion  and  the  bear  and  the  giant, 
and  gave  him  skill  to  lead  Israel's  armies, 
so  that  the  women   sang:   "Saul   hath   slain 


SPIRITUAL   LEADERSHIP.  39 

his  thousands  and  David  his  ten  thou- 
sands," while  the  elders,  after  the  death 
of  Saul,  came  to  him,  saying,  "In  time 
past,  when  Saul  was  king  over  us,  thou 
was  he  that  leddest  out  and  broughtest  in 
Israel,  and  the  Lord  said  to  thee,  thou 
shalt  be  a  captain  over  Israel?"     God. 

And  why  did  God  single  them  out  and 
distinguish  them,  and  give  them  this  power 
above  other  men?  Because  God  was  to 
them  the   supreme  Fact. 

They  believed  God,  sought  God,  feared 
and  trusted  and  obeyed  God.  Read  the 
Psalms  and  see  how  God  fills  the  whole 
heaven  of  David's  thought,  desire  and 
affection,  and  you  will  cease  to  wonder 
at  his  leadership.  It  was  based  on 
spiritual  life,  power  and  fellowship  with 
God. 

This  spiritual  leadership  once  attained, 
can  be  maintained.  Witness  Moses,  Elijah, 
Paul,  Fox,  Wesley,  Finney  and  General 
Booth,  and  ten  thousand  leaders  in  hum- 
bler spheres  who  still  bear  "fruit  in  old 
age,"  and  continue  "fat  and  flourishing;" 
like  a  white-haired  old  saint  of  eighty 
years,  on  whom  I  called  who,  after  I  had 
prayed,    burst    into    prayer,    and    said:    "O 


40  THE  soul-winner's   SECRET. 

Father,  I  testify  to  Thee,  and  the  angels, 
and  these  young  brothers,  that  old  age  is 
not  a  time  of  dotage  and  second  childhood, 
but  the  springtime  of  eternal  youth." 

I  hear  comparatively  young  men  com- 
plaining and  expressing  fear  that  when  they 
get  old  they  will  be  set  aside  and  su- 
perseded by  younger  and  more  virile  men 
without  a  tithe  of  their  experience,  for- 
getting that  it  is  not  long  service  and  ex- 
perience that  makes  spiritual  leaders,  but 
vigorous  spiritual  life,  and  that  if  set 
aside,  it  will  be  because  they  have  not 
kept  step  with  God;,  but  have  neglected 
the  divine  life,  the  Holy  Ghost  in  them. 
Neither  conferences,  nor  synods,  nor  coun- 
cils, nor  commanders,  can  make  a  man 
acceptable  to  the  people,  however  long  his 
service  and  varied  his  experience,  if  he  has 
lost  the  spirit  of  prayer  and  faith  and  fiery- 
hearted  love,  and  the  sweet  simplicity  and 
trustfulness  and  self-sacrifice  of  his  youth, 
and  is  now  living  on  past  victories  and 
revelations  and  blessings.  But  fresh 
anointings  of  the  Spirit  and  present-day 
experiences  will  make  him  acceptable, 
though  his  eye  be  dim  and  his  back  bent, 
and  his  voice  husky  with  age.     It  was  so 


SPIRITUAL   LEADERSHIP.  41 

with  Finney,  and  Whitefield  and  Wesley, 
and  so  it  may  be  with  you,  O  my 
brother ! 

There  have  been  ministers  who  in  their 
prime  fought  holiness  and  refused  the 
baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  or  who,  hav- 
ing received  the  baptism,  neglected  and 
lost  it,  who  filled  big  pulpits  and  drew  fat 
salaries,  but  whose  influence  gradually 
waned  and  whose  old  age  was  full  of 
complainings  and  disappointments  and 
bitterness  and  jealousies,  and  whose  sun 
went  down  behind  clouds,  if  not  into  a 
starless  night,  because  they  neglected 
God. 

And  I  know  men — old  men — full  of  God, 
who  were  persecuted  in  their  prime  for 
Jesus'  sake,  but  who  had  salt  in  them- 
selves and  kept  sweet  and  delighted 
themselves  in  the  Lord,  whose  bow  abides 
in  strength,  whose  sun  is  shining  in  full- 
ness of  splendor,  and  who  are  filling  the 
world  with  divine  messages  that  men  are 
eager  to  hear.  Know  this:  that  not  long 
service  and  experience  will  save  you  from 
becoming  a  back  number,  but  God  in  you 
will.  God  is  always  up  to  date.  It  is  God 
men  want. 


42  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

What  service  had  they  performed,  and 
what  experience  had  Moses,  and  David, 
and  Daniel,  and  Paul,  when  God  set  them 
up  as  leaders?  None.  But  they  were  in 
touch  with  God;  they  were  pliable  to  His 
will,  teachable,  trustful,  obedient,  cour- 
ageous and   uncomplaining. 

They  were  full  of  God.  And  know  this, 
you  who  fear  the  time  is  coming  when 
your  services  will  no  longer  be  appreci- 
ated or  wanted,  and  you  will  be  thrust 
into  a  corner,  that  a  man  full  of  God  can- 
not be  thrust  aside.  If  he  is  put  into  a 
desert  place,  then  all  the  country  side  and 
Jerusalem  will  flock  to  the  desert  ^lace, 
as  they  did  to  Jesus  and  John  the  Baptist; 
and  if  he  is  thrust  into  a  corner,  then  the 
world  will  stop  and  bend  its  ear  to  his 
corner  to  hear  his  latest  message  from 
God.  They  thrust  Paul  into  prison,  but 
he  spoke  and  wrote  words  of  life  and  power 
that  burn  with  unquenchable  fire  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  are  doing  more  to  direct 
the  thought,  inspire  the  faith  and  inflame 
the  affections  of  men  to-day  than  ever  be- 
fore. The  Jews  and  Romans  thought  they 
had  done  with  him  when  they  cut  off  his 
head  as  that  of  a  dog,  but,  after  two  mil- 


SPIRITUAL   LEADERSHIP.  43 

lenniums  his  influence  still  increases,  and 
forever  will. 

And  so  they  thought  to  silence  Madam 
Guyon  in  the  Bastille,  and  John  Bunyon  in 
the  filthy  Bedford  jail.  But  who  can  silence 
the  thunder  of  God's  power,  or  hush  His 
"still  small  voice,"  when  He  chooses  a  man 
to  speak  through  him?  Their  silent  prisons 
but  become  public  telephone  stations,  con- 
nected with  the  skies. 

The  other  day,  in  one  of  our  great 
cities,  died  an  old  man,  long  since  past 
three  score  years  and  ten,  a  minister,  who 
at  the  age  of  forty-seven,  broke  down  so 
utterly  in  health  from  over  work,  that  for 
five  years  he  never  read  a  chapter  from  a 
book,  not  even  from  the  Bible,  but  he  held 
fast  his  faith  in  both  God  and  man,  kept 
his  love  all  aglow,  and  at  last  died  full  of 
years  and  was  mourned  by  hundreds  in  all 
parts  of  the  globe  who  had  been  saved,  sanc- 
tified, inspired  and  qualified  for  service  by 
his  words  and  life,  and  the  agencies  he  set 
in  motion  for  the  sanctification  of  the 
church  and  the  salvation  of  the  world.  And, 
by  odds,  his  greatest  work  was  accom- 
plished after  he  had  passed  three  score 
years.     God  was  with  him. 


44  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

But  while  this  spiritual  power  and  leader- 
ship may  be  maintained,  yet  it  is  a  subtle 
thing  that   may   be   lost   for   evermore. 

When  Saul  was  little  in  his  own  sight, 
he  was  made  king,  but,  when  lifted  up  he 
became  disobedient,  his  kingdom  was  rent 
from  him  and  given  to  another.  And  is  it 
not  this  we  are  warned  against  in  the 
words:  "Hold  fast  that  which  thou  hast, 
that  no  man  take  thy  crown?"  The  bish- 
opric of  Judas  was  given  to  another.  The 
one  talent  was  taken  from  the  "wicked 
and  slothful  servant,"  and  given  to  him 
that  had  ten. 

I  know  a  Christian  worker  surrounded 
by  a  number  of  other  bright,  earnest,  teach- 
able, spiritually  ambitious  young  workers, 
who  looked  to  him  for  direction  and  guid- 
ance. He  invited  them  to  his  home  for 
an  evening,  and  when  they  waited  for  soul- 
food,  cofifee  and  cake  were  brought  out; 
and  when  they  expected  prayer  and  counsel 
the  chess  board  was  produced,  and  the 
opportunity  of  the  evening  slipped  away, 
and  the  strong  bonds  that  united  them  in 
God  were  relaxed  and  weakened^  if  not 
in  one  or  two  cases  broken,  and  while  his 
official  and  titular  leadership  was  recognized 


SPIRITUAL   LEADERSHIP.  45 

his  commanding  spiritual  leadership  was 
gone,  alas!   I  fear  forever. 

As  electric  wires  in  order  to  carry  the 
subtle  current,  must  be  insulated,  so  must 
men  who  hold  spiritual  leadership  and  who 
would  transmit  to  their  fellows  spiritual 
power  and  life. 

"But  ye  beloved,  building  up  yourselves 
on  your  most  holy  faith,  praying  in  the 
Holy  Ghost,  keep  yourselves  in  the  love  of 
God,  looking  for  the  mercy  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  unto  eternal  life  .  .  .  Now 
unto  Him  that  is  able  to  keep  you  from 
falling,  and  to  present  you  faultless  before 
the  presence  of  His  glory  with  exceeding 
joy,  to  the  only  wise  God,  our  Saviour,  be 
glory  and  majesty,  dominion  and  power 
both  now  and  ever.    Amen."     (Jude  20:  25.) 


46  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 


VI. 


REDEEMING  THE  TIME. 

"/See  that  ye  walk  circumspect,  not  as  fools, 
hut  as  wise,  redeeming  the  time,  because  the 
days  are  evil."     (Eph.   5  :  15-16.) 

The  soul-winner  must  value  time.  Dia- 
monds and  gold  nuggets  are  not  so  prec- 
ious as  minutes.  One  morning,  about  5 
o'clock,  John  Wesley  lost  ten  minutes 
through  the  tardiness  of  his  coachman,  and 
mourned  for  them  more  than  over  lost 
treasure. 

Dr.  Johnson  tells  us  that  "Whenever 
Melanchthon  made  an  appointment,  he 
expected  not  only  the  hour,  but  the  min- 
ute to  be  fixed,  that  the  day  might  not 
run  out  in  the  idleness  of  suspense."  A 
lady  told  me  that  she  was  sure  she  got  a 


REDEEMING  THE  TIME.  47 

position  as  a  teacher  once  by  being  sharp 
on  time.  Another  young  lady,  better  fitted 
for  the  position,  arrived  a  bit  late,  and 
remarked,  "I  thought  it  wouldn't  make 
any  difference  if  I  were  a  few  minutes 
late."  She  was  politely  informed  that  her 
services  were  not  wanted,  as  a  teacher  had 
been  secured.  Eternity  is  made  up  of  mo- 
ments, and  "lost  time  is  lost  eternity." 

"Believe  me,"  said  Gladstone,  "when  I 
tell  you  that  thrift  of  time  will  repay  you 
in  after  life  with  a  usury  of  profit  beyond 
your  most  sanguine  dreams,  and  that  the 
waste  of  it  will  make  you  dwindle  alike 
in  intellectual  and  moral  stature,  beyond 
your  darkest  reckonings." 

And  yet  thoughtless  idlers  try  to  "kill 
time,"  and  thus  destroy  their  most  valuable 
possession. 

What  is  life  but  a  glad,  present  conscious- 
ness of  God  and  self  and  duty,  and  a  hearty 
obedience  thereto?  But  he  that  kills  time 
seeks  to  forget,  and  would  be  far  better 
dead. 

"The  future  is  nothing  but  a  coming 
present,"  wrote  Jean  Paul  Richter,  "and 
the  present  which  thou  despisest  was  once 
a    future    which    thou    desiredst."      Said    a 


48  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

heathen  philosopher,  "Every  man's  life  lies 
within  the  present,  for  the  past  is  spent 
and  done  with,  and  the  future  is  uncertain," 
If  you  would  redeem  the  time,  begin  the 
moment  your  eyes  open  in  the  morning. 
Let  no  idle,  foolish,  hurtful  thoughts  be 
harbored  for  an  instant,  but  begin  at  once 
to  pray  and  praise  God  and  to  meditate 
on  His  glories.  His  goodness  and  faithful- 
ness and  truth,  and  your  heart  will  soon 
burn  within  you  and  bubble  over  with  joy. 
Bounce  out  of  your  bed  at  once  and  get  the 
start  of  your  work  and  push  it,  else  it  will 
get  the  start  and  push  you.     For 

"If  you  in  the  morning 

Tlirow  minutes  away, 
You  can't  pick  them  up 

In  the  course  of  the  day. 
You    may    hurry    a,nd    scurry, 

And    flurry    and   worry, 
You've  lost  them  forever, 

Forever  and  aye." 

Said  a  chief  divisional  officer  to  me  the 
other  day,  "There  is  much  in  the  habit  of 
work.  H  a  man  forms  the  habit,  he  natur- 
ally turns  to  it.  I  find  it  so  with  myself.  I 
squander  less  time  now  than  I  used  to  do." 

The    difference    between    wise    men    and 


REDEEMING    THE  TIME.  49 

fools,  rich  men  and  poor  men,  saints  and 
sinners,  saved  men  and  damned  men,  does 
not  usually  result  so  much  from  difference 
of  circumstances,  and  the  start  they  had 
in  life  as  in  the  difference  in  their  use  of 
time.  One  redeemed  it  for  the  purpose  he 
had  in  view;  the  other  squandered  it.  One 
was  a  miser  of  the  minutes;  the  other  was 
a  spendthrift  of  the  days  and  months  and 
years. 

The  one  was  ever  up  and  doing,  packing 
into  every  hour  some  search  for  truth, 
some  prayer  to  God,  some  communion  with 
Jesus,  some  service  to  man,  some  counsel 
to  a  saint,  some  warning  or  entreaty  to  a 
sinner;  the  other  was  ever  neglecting  the 
opportunity  of  the  present,  but  full  of  vague 
purposes  and  dreams  for  an  ever-receding, 
will-o'-the-wisp-like    future. 

The  one  plods  his  way  patiently  and 
surely  to  ''glory  and  honor,  and  peace,  and 
immortality,  and  eternal  life;"  the  other 
drifts  dreamily,  but  certainly  into  the  re- 
gions of  "indignation  and  wrath,  tribulation 
and  anguish,"  and  finally  lands  in  Hell.  (See 
Rom,  2:  6-10.) 

To  redeem  time  one  does  not  want  fever- 
ish hurry,  but  a  prompt,  steady,  quiet  use 


60  THE  soul-winner's   SECRET. 

of  the  minutes.  It  was  said  of  John  Wesley 
that  he  was  always  in  haste,  but  never  in 
a  hurry.  "Make  haste  slowly,"  is  a  wise 
old  adage. 

To  save  time  the  soul-winner  will  find  it 
profitable  to  go  to  bed  promptly  after  his 
meeting  at  night  and  to  get  up  promptly 
on  waking  in  the  morning.  Men  who  have 
accomplished  anything  in  the  world  have 
usually  gone  to  work  early  in  the  day. 

The  Rev.  Albert  Barnes  wrote  sixteen 
volumes  in  less  than  an  equal  number  of 
years,  devoting  to  them  only  the  hours 
before   breakfast. 

If  you  would  save  time,  have  a  Bible,  a 
note  book  and  a  pencil  always  at  hand. 
Never  go  on  to  the  street  or  take  a  journey 
without  at  least  a  Testament  with  you, 
and  some  other  useful  book  if  possible. 
And  don't  forget  to  use  them.  The  Gospel 
of  St.  Matthew  can  be  read  through  in  two 
hours.  This  may  not  be  the  most  profit- 
able way  to  read  it,  and  yet  it  will  pay  to 
read  it  right  through  at  one  sitting,  that 
we  may  see  the  life  of  Jesus  as  a  whole 
as  we  would  the  life  of  any  man. 

Paul's  first  letter  to  Timothy  can  be  read 
in  twenty  minutes,  while  Jude  can  be  read 


REDEEMING   THE  TIME,  51 

in  three  minutes  easily.  Then  don't  throw 
away  these   minutes. 

Mrs.  General  Booth  had  to  snatch  time 
from  household  duties  and  the  care  of  small 
children  to  prepare  her  marvelous  ad- 
dresses that  stirred  England,  and  helped  so 
much  in  making  and  moulding  The 
Army. 

The  minister  who  sits  about  smoking  and 
reading  novels,  and  The  Salvation  Army 
officer  who  whiles  away  the  minutes  idly 
thrumming  on  his  guitar  and  reading  the 
daily  papers  will  not  succeed  at  soul-saving 
work. 

Again,  the  soul-winner  can  redeem  time 
by  being  "instant  in  season,  out  of  season," 
in  dealing  with  men  about  the  things  of 
God.  Uncle  John  Vassar,  an  eccentric,  but 
marvelously  successful  soul-winner,  once 
saw  two  ladies  in  the  parlor  of  a  Boston 
hotel,  and  immediately  inquired  if  they  were 
at  peace  with  God,  and  kindly  and  earnestly 
preached  Jesus  to  them,  and  urged  them 
to  make  ready  for  death  and  judgment  by 
accepting  Him  as  Saviour  and  Lord.  A 
few  moments  later  the  husband  of  one  of 
them  came  in  and  found  them  in  tears.  He 
inquired    for    the  reason,    when    his    wife 


52  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

said,  "A  strange  little  man  has  just  been 
talking  to  us  about  religion  and  urging  us 
to  get  right  with  God." 

"Well,"  said  the  man,  "if  I  had  been 
here  I  should  have  told  him  to  go  about 
his  business." 

"My  dear,"  replied  the  wife,  "if  you  had 
been  here,  you  would  have  thought  he  was 
about  his  business." 

That  blessed  young  saint  of  God,  James 
Brainerd  Taylor,  met  a  traveler  at  a  water- 
ing trough  one  day,  and  during  the  five 
minutes  their  horses  were  drinking  he 
so  preached  Jesus  to  the  stranger  that  he 
was  saved  and  afterwards  became  a  mission- 
ary to  Africa.  They  met  no  more,  and  the 
stranger  was  ever  wondering  who  the  angel 
of  mercy  was  that  pointed  him  to  Jesus. 
One  day  in  Africa  he  received  a  box  of 
books,  and  on  opening  a  small  volume  of 
memoirs,  he  saw  the  picture  of  the  saintly 
and  sainted  young  man  who  was  about  his 
Father's  business  and  redeemed  the  time 
at  that  watering  trough  by  preaching  Jesus 
and  saving  a  soul,  instead  of  idly  gossiping 
about  the  weather. 

It  takes  no  more  time  to  ask  a  man 
about  his  soul  than  about  his  health,  but 


REDEEMING   THE  TIME.  53 

it  will  require  more  love  and  prayer  and 
holy  tact  and  soul-wakefulness  to  do  it 
with  profit,  and  these  the  soul-winner  must 
have. 

With  many  much  time  is  lost  for  want  of  sys- 
tem. Things  are  done  at  haphazard,  duties  are 
performed  at  random,  and  after  one  thing 
is  done  time  is  wasted  in  deciding  what  to 
do  next.  It  is  well,  then,  to  have  a  pro- 
gram for  every  day,  or,  better  still,  for  every 
hour  and  minute,  as  our  General  does  when 
he  goes  on  a  tour.  For  months  ahead  the 
General  will  have  a  program  for  every  hour 
of  the  day,  and  whether  he  succeeds  or 
not  in  perfectly  carrying  it  out  in  all  its  de- 
tails, he  at  least  works  to  it,  saves  anxious 
worry,  loses  no  time  and  accomplishes  a 
well-nigh  incredible  amount  of  business. 
Of  course  in  this  busy  world,  full  of  sur- 
prises and  unexpected  calls,  any  program 
must  be  flexible  and  not  like  cast  iron, 
and  in  times  of  emergency  the  soul-winner 
must  be  prepared  to  cast  it  to  the  winds 
and  follow  according  to  his  best  judgment 
where  the  Spirit  leads,  singing  with  all  his 
heart: 


54  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

"I  would  the  precious  time  redeem, 
And  longer  live  for  this  alone — 

To  spend  and  to  be  spent  for  them, 

Who  have  not  yet  the   Saviour  known, 

And  turn  them  to  a  pardoning  God 

And  quench   the   brands   in   Jesus'   Blood. 

My   talents,   gifts  and  graces,   Lord, 
Into  Thy  blessed  hands  receive. 

And  let  me   live  to  preach  Thy  Word, 
And  let  me  to  Thy  glory  live ; 

My  every  sacred  moment   spend 
In  publishing  the  sinner's  Friend.' 

Finally,  if  you  would  redeem  the  time, 
keep  a  conscience  void  of  offence,  keep 
your  soul  at  white-heat  with  love  for  Jesus 
and  the  dying  world,  "Have  faith  in  God." 
Expect  victory.  Nothing  saps  a  man's 
energies,  dulls  his  faculties  and  takes  from 
him  all  incentive  to  holy  and  high  effort 
like  doubt  and  discouragement.  It  is 
your  duty  to  expect  victory.  Hallelujah! 
After  the  defeat  at  Ai,  Joshua  in  a  fit  of 
discouragement  stopped  all  efforts  and  fell 
flat  on  his  face  and  stayed  there  till  God 
came  by  and  said,  "Get  thee  up;  where- 
fore liest  thou  thus  upon  thy  face?  Israel 
hath  sinned  and  they  have  also  transgressed 


REDEEMING  THE  TIME.  55 

My  covenant  which  I  commanded  them;  for 
they  have  even  taken  of  the  accursed 
thing,  and  have  also  stolen,  and  dis- 
sembled also.  Therefore  the  children  of 
Israel  could  not  stand  before  their  enemies 
....  neither  will  I  be  with  you  any  more, 
except  ye  destroy  the  accursed  thing  among 
you.  Up,  sanctify  the  people  and  say,  'Sanc- 
tify yourselves.'"     (Joshua  7:   10-13.) 

God  wanted  Joshua  to  be  up  and  doing, 
and  if  he  could  not  whip  the  enemy,  then 
he  was  to  clean  out  his  own  camp  and  not 
be  discouraged.  Trust  God,  and  trust  man, 
and  where  men  cannot  be  trusted,  then  love 
them  and  pray  for  them,  and  you  will  surely 
redeem  the  time  and  win  souls  to  God. 


56  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 


VIL 


THE     STUDIES     OF     THE     SOUL-WINNER. 

"Study  to  show  thyself  approved  unto  God,  a 
workman  that  needeth  not  to  he  ashamed,  right- 
ly dividing  the  word  of  truth. — Paul  to  Timo- 
thy."    (2  Tim.  2:  15.) 

"Give  attendance  to  reading,  to  exhortation, 
to  doctrine.  Neglect  not  the  gift  that  is  in  thee. 
Meditate  upon  these  things;  give  thyself  wholly 
to  them;  that  thy  profiting  may  appear  to  all." 
(1  Tim.   4:   13-15.) 

No  man  or  woman  need  hope  to  be  a  per- 
manently successful  soul-winner  who  is  not 
a  diligent  student  of  the  truth,  of  the  will 
and  ways  of  God,  of  men,  and  of  methods. 
A  man  cannot  successfully  build  a  house, 
or  write  a  poem,  or  govern  a  city,  or  manage 
a  store,  or  even  shoe  a  horse  or  make  a 
mouse-trap  without  thoughtful  study. 


STUDIES  OF  THE  SOUL- WINNER.  57 

A  doctor  must  think  and  study,  and  that 
diligently  and  continuously,  if  he  would 
understand  the  delicate  human  organism  and 
the  subtle  diseases  to  which  it  is  subject, 
and  the  various  remedies  by  which  these 
diseases   are  to  be  antagonized. 

A  lawyer  must  be  a  diligent  student  if 
he  would  win  cases  before  judges  and  juries 
in  the  face  of  self-interest  and  skillful  oppo- 
nents. 

How  much  more  then  should  the  soul-win- 
ner study  in  order  that  he  may  understand 
the  diseases  of  the  soul,  the  ramifications 
of  evil,  the  deceitfulness  of  the  human 
heart,  and  the  application  of  the  great 
remedy  God  has  provided  to  meet  all  the 
needs  of  the  soul;  or,  to  change  the  figure, 
how  must  he  study  to  win  his  case  at  the 
bar  of  man's  conscience,  when  the  man's 
own  deceitful  heart  is  the  opposing  counsel, 
assisted  by  that  old  adversary,  the  devil, 
who  for  six  thousand  years  has  been  deceiv- 
ing the  children  of  men  and  leading  them 
down  to  Hell ! 

Oh,  that  every  man  who  sets  himself  to  be 
a  soul-winner  might  fully  recognize  the  tre- 
mendous odds  against  which  he  fights  and 
set   himself  by   much   believing  prayer   and 


58  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

joyous,  diligent  study  to  show  himself  a  man 
"approved  unto  God,  a  workman  that 
needeth  not  to  be  ashamed !"  Thank  God, 
no  one  called  of  Him  need  be  discouraged 
or  dismayed.  Only  let  him  not  bury  his 
talent  in  a  napkin,  nor  spend  his  time  in  idle 
dreaming,  but  let  him  stir  up  the  gift  that 
is  in  him  and  faithfully  give  a  little  time 
each  day  to  those  studies  that  will  enlighten 
the  mind  and  fit  him  for  the  work  God  has 
called  him  to,  and  he  shall  surely  be  blessed 
of  God  and  find  himself  "furnished  unto 
every   good    work." 

I. — The  first  thing  and  the  last  to  be 
studied  is  the  Bible.  The  doctor  may  know 
all  about  law  and  art,  history  and  theology, 
but  if  he  is  unacquainted  with  his  medical 
books  he  is  a  failure  as  a  doctor.  The  law- 
yer may  have  devoured  libraries,  traveled 
the  wide  world  over,  and  become  a  walk- 
ing encyclopedia  and  dictionary,  but  if  he 
is  unacquainted  with  his  law  books,  as  a 
lawyer  he  is  a  failure. 

So  the  worker  for  souls  may  read  ten  thou- 
sand books,  may  be  able  to  quote  poetry  by 
the  mile,  may  be  acquainted  with  all  the  facts 
of  science  and  history,  and  may  even  be  a 
profound    theologian,    but    unless    he    is    a 


STUDIES  OF  THE  SOUL-WINNER.  59 

diligent  student  of  the  Bible,  he  will  not 
permanently  succeed  as  a  soul-winner.  He 
must  become  full  of  the  thoughts  of  God. 
He  must  eat  the  Word  and  digest  it  and 
turn  it  into  spiritual  blood  and  bone  and 
muscle  and  nerve  and  sinew,  until  he  be- 
comes, as  someone  has  said,  "A  living  Bible, 
eighteen  inches  wide  by  six  feet  long,  bound 
in  human   skin." 

Finney  used  to  get  up  at  4  o'clock  in  the 
morning  and  read  his  Bible  until  8.  During 
one  of  his  revival  services  in  Boston  he  said, 
"I  gave  myself  to  a  great  deal  of  prayer. 
After  my  evening  services  I  would  retire 
as  early  as  I  could,  but  rose  at  4  o'clock 
in  the  morning  because  I  could  sleep  no 
longer,  and  immediately  went  to  the  study 
and  engaged  in  prayer.  And  so  deeply  was 
my  mind  exercised,  and  so  absorbed  in 
prayer,  that  I  frequently  continued  from 
the  time  I  arose  at  4  o'clock,  till  called  to 
breakfast  at  8  o'clock.  My  days  were 
spent  as  far  as  I  could  get  time,  in  search- 
ing the  Scriptures.  I  read  nothing  else  all 
that  Winter  but  my  Bible,  and  a  great  deal 
of  it  seemed  new  to  me.  Again  the  Lord 
took  me,  as  it  were,  from  Genesis  to  Revela- 
tion.   He  let  me  see  the  connection  of  things, 


60  THE  soul-winner's   SECRET. 

the  promises,  the  threatenings,  the  prophecies 
and  their  fulfillment;  and  indeed,  the  whole 
Scripture  seemed  to  me  all  ablaze  with  light, 
and  not  only  light,  but  it  seemed  as  if  God's 
Word  was  instinct  with  the  very  life  of 
God." 

This  diligent  attention  to  the  Word  of 
God  is  a  command.  He  said  to  Joshua, 
"This  book  of  the  law  shall  not  depart  out 
of  thy  mouth,  but  thou  shalt  meditate  there- 
in day  and  night."  The  object  of  this 
earnest  study  was,  "That  thou  mayest  ob- 
serve to  do  according  to  all  that  is  written 
therein,"  and  the  result,  "for  then  thou  shalt 
make  thy  way  prosperous  and  then  thou 
shalt  have  good  success."  David's  "blessed 
man"  is  not  one  who  simply  refuses  to  keep 
company  with  the  ungodly  and  abstains 
from  their  ways,  "but  his  delight  is  in  the 
law  of  the  Lord  and  in  His  law  doth  he 
meditate  day  and  night."  (Ps.  i:  2.)  And 
the  difference  between  him  and  the  ungodly 
is  the  difference  between  a  fruitful  tree 
planted  by  the  river  and  "the  chaff  which  the 
wind  driveth  away." 

Jesus  declared  the  importance  of  the 
Word  when  He  told  the  devil  that  "Man 
shall   not  live  by  bread  alone,  but  by  every 


STUDIES  OF  THE  SOUL-WINNER.  61 

word  which  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth 
of  God," 

Mrs.  General  Booth  read  her  Bible 
through  a  number  of  times  before  she  was 
twelve  years  old.  No  wonder  God  made  her 
a  "mother  of  nations."  She  was  full  of 
truth,  and  she  could  never  open  her  mouth 
without  saying  something  that  was  calcu- 
lated to  expose  shams  and  falsehoods,  over- 
throw the  devil's  kingdom  of  lies  and  build 
up  God's  kingdom  of  righteousness  and 
truth  in  the  hearts  of  men. 

Whitefield  read  the  Bible  through  many 
times  on  his  knees  with  Henry's  notes. 
Again  and  again  the  writer  has  read  his  Bible 
through  on  his  knees,  and  it  is  ever  new, 
and  as  David  said,  "sweeter  also  than  honey 
or  the  honeycomb."  And  like  Job  he  can  say, 
*'I  have  esteemed  the  words  of  His  mouth 
more  than  my  necessary  food." 

Wesley  in  his  old  age  called  himself  "A 
man  of  one  book."  It  is  from  this  armory 
that  the  soul-winner  is  to  draw  his  weapons 
with  which  he  fights  all  Hell.  It  is  here 
that  he  is  to  study  the  mind  and  heart  of 
God,  the  truth  about  Jesus  Christ,  sin  and 
the  way  of  escape  from  it,  and  the  facts 
about   Heaven    and    Hell,    a   Judgment   Day 


62  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

and  eternity.  Here  he  is  to  find  a  law  for 
the  lawless,  warnings  for  the  careless,  prom- 
ises for  the  penitent,  encouragement  for 
the  distressed,  balm  for  the  wounded, 
healing  for  the  sick,  life  for  the  dead. 
He  is  to  "preach  the  Word,"  for  it  is  "prof- 
itable for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  correc- 
tion, for  instruction  in  righteousness ;  that 
the  man  of  God  may  be  perfect,  thoroughly 
furnished  unto  every  good  work."  And  in 
preaching  it,  if  he  preaches  as  they  did  of 
old,  "with  the  Holy  Ghost  sent  down  from 
Heaven,"  he  will  find  it  living  and  active 
and  "sharper  than  any  two-edged  sword,  and 
piercing  even  to  the  dividing  of  soul  and 
spirit,  of  the  joints  and  marrow,  and  quick 
to  discern  the  thoughts  and  intents  of  the 
heart."  I  have  sometimes  read  or  quoted 
the  Word  of  God  to  people,  and  it  fitted 
their  case  so  pat  that  it  smote  them  like  a 
lightning  bolt. 

"Is  not  My  Word  like  a  fire?  saith  the 
Lord,  and  like  a  hammer  that  breaketh  the 
rock  in  pieces?" 

But  the  soul-winner  must  not  study  it 
simply  that  he  may  preach  it,  but  that  he 
may  himself  live  by  it,  be  furnished,  strength- 
ened, enlightened,  corrected  and  made  wise 


STUDIES  OF  THE  SOUL-WINNER.  63 

by  it.  It  must  pass  through  his  own  soul 
and  become  a  part  of  his  own  spiritual  life 
before  he  can  preach  it  with  power  and  apply 
it  effectually  to  the  saving  of  men.  And  in 
order  to  do  this  he  must  be  filled  with  the 
Holy  Ghost.  In  fact,  it  is  only  as  he  is 
filled  with  the  Spirit  that  he  will  be  able  to 
get  much  benefit  from  the  Word  of  God  or 
have  much  love  for  it. 

The  Bible  is  a  sealed  book  to  unspiritual 
people,  but  when  the  Comforter  comes  it  is 
unsealed  and  its  wondrous  meaning  made 
clear.  I  read  recently  of  a  lad,  who  could 
not  read,  receiving  the  baptism  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  Then  he  got  his  unsaved  sister  to 
read  the  Bible  to  him  and  he  explained  it  to 
her.  Hallelujah !  The  Holy  Ghost  in  him 
enabled  him  to  understand  what  the  Holy 
Ghost  in  holy  m.en  of  old  enabled  them  to 
write.  Only  the  Holy  Ghost  can  help  men 
to  understand  His  Book. 

An  old  colored  lady  loved  her  Bible  very 
much.  A  friend  who  found  her  reading  it 
frequently,  gave  her  a  commentary  to  assist 
her  in  getting  at  its  meaning.  A  few  days 
later  seeing  her,  he  asked,  "Well,  Auntie, 
how  do  you  like  that  book  I  gave  you?" 
She  replied,  "Oh,  dat  be  a  very  good  book, 


64  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

but  de  Bible  do  throw  a  lot  o'  light  on  dat 
'er  book." 

The  Bereans  show  us  the  way  to  read  the 
Bible  (Acts  17:  ii).  i.  They  received  the 
Word  with  all  readiness.  2.  They  searched 
the  Scriptures.  It  was  not  with  them  just  a 
hasty,  careless,  thoughtless  reading;  they 
searched  as  men  would  search  for  hid 
treasure.      3.  They  did  this  daily. 

Personally,  for  years  I  have  given  the  best 
hour  of  the  day  to  the  Bible,  until  I  want 
it  more  than  I  want  my  food. 

It  should  be  read  early  in  the  day,  before 
other  things  crowd  in.  What  is  read  should 
be  remembered.  In  eating  it  is  not  the 
amount  we  eat,  but  the  amount  we  digest 
that  does  us  good,  and  just  so  is  it  in  reading 
and  studying.  It  is  not  the  amount  we  read, 
but  what  we  remember  and  make  our  own 
that  does  us  good. 

2. — Besides  the  Bible,  the  soul-winner 
ought  to  lay  out  a  course  of  reading  for 
himself  and  stick  to  it,  reading  a  few  pages 
each  day.  Ten  pages  a  day  will  mean  from 
ten  to  fifteen  books  a  year. 

Every  Salvation  Army  officer  ought  to 
read  the  General's  "Letters/'  "Holiness 
Readings,"    the  "F.   O.,"   and   Mrs.   Booth's 


STUDIES  OF  THE  SOUL-WINNER.  65 

works.  "Books  that  Bless,"  by  the  Chief, 
will  prove  invaluable. 

"Holy  Living  and  Dying,"  by  Taylor; 
"Law's  Call,"  "Saint's  Rest,"  by  Baxter; 
Edwards'  "Life  of  Brainerd,"  Wesley's 
works,  "Life  of  Fletcher,"  "Life  of  Bram- 
well,"  "Pilgrim's  Progress,"  "Half  Hours 
with  St.  Paul,"  by  Daniel  Steele;  "Holi- 
ness and  Power,"  by  Rev.  A.  M.  Hills, 
and  Finney's  and  Caughey's  works  will 
make  a  library  that  can  be  read  again  and 
again  with  untold  profit  by  soul-winners. 

Not  too  much  time  should  be  spent  over 
newspapers.  It  would  probably  not  be  wise 
to  discard  them  altogether,  but  better  do 
that  than  let  them  rob  you  of  the  time  that 
should  be  spent  in  deep  study  and  earnest 
prayer.  I  once  heard  the  General  say,  "I 
have  not  read  a  newspaper  for  ten  days." 
All  useful  knowledge  may  prove  valuable 
to  the  soul-winner,  and  he  should  seek  in- 
formation everywhere.  It  is  well  to  carry  a 
note-book  and  constantly  make  notes.  Glad- 
stone made  notes  on  the  margins  of  books 
he  read. 

The  soul- winner  should  study  not  only 
books,  but  men  and  methods.  John  Wesley 
became   a   supreme  master   in   practical  and 


66  THE  soul-winner's  SECRET. 

experimental  theology  and  a  matchless  soul- 
winner  largely  through  his  study  of  men. 
He  examined  thousands  of  people  —  men, 
women  and  children,  with  reference  to  their 
religious  experience,  and  especially  their 
experiences  of  sanctification,  until  he  became 
acquainted  with  the  human  heart  and  the 
workings  of  the  Holy  Spirit  as  few  men 
have  ever  done.  I  know  of  no  better  and 
surer  method  of  acquainting  one's  self  with 
the  human  heart  and  the  way  the  Holy 
Spirit  works  with  men  to  save  than  by  this 
close,  personal,  private  conversation  and  in- 
quiry about  the  religious  experiences  of  the 
Christians  around  us.  This  is  the  scientific 
method  applied  to  the  study  of  the  human 
heart,  the  Christian  life  and  religious 
experience,  and  it  can  be  carried  on  wher- 
ever you  can  find  a  human  soul  to  talk  with 
you.     "He   that  winneth   souls   is  wise." 


HEALTH.  67 


VIII. 


HEALTH. 

Beloved,  I  wish  above  all  things  that  thou 
mayest  prosper,  and  6e  in  health,  even  as  thy 
soul  prospereth. — 3   John   2. 

The  soul-winner  must  take  the  best  care  he 
knows  how  of  his  body,  yet  without  everlast- 
ingly cuddling  and  petting  and  pitying  him- 
self. This  is  his  sacred  duty.  The  body  is 
the  instrument  through  which  the  mind  and 
the  soul  work  in  this  world.  A  good  body 
is  as  essential  to  the  soul-winner  as  is  a  good 
instrument  to  the  musician,  or  a  staunch 
boat  to  the  strong  rower,  and  should  be  no 
more  despised  and  neglected  than  is  his  gun 
by  the  huntsman  or  his  axe  by  the  woods- 
man. "Know  ye  not,"  said  St.  Paul,  "that 
your  body  is  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost?" 
and  "if  any  man  defile"  (margin  "destroy") 


68  THE  soul-winner's  SECRET. 

"the  temple  of  God,  him  will  God  destroy." 
As  the  most  skilful  musician  is  dependent 
upon  his  instrument  for  the  richness  and 
sweetness  of  the  music  he  makes,  so  men, 
in  every  walk  in  life,  are  in  a  large  measure 
limited  by  and  dependent  upon  the  quality 
of  the  body  through  which  their  mental  and 
spiritual  powers  must  work. 

Most  men  who  have  made  a  mark  in  the 
world,  though  there  are  some  striking  ex- 
ceptions, have  had  a  splendid  basis  of  physi- 
cal force  and  power.  When  Moses  died  on 
Mount  Nebo  at  120  years  of  age,  "his  eyes 
were  not  dimmed  nor  his  natural  force 
abated,"  and  that  notwithstanding  the  fact 
that  for  forty  years  he  had  had  the  tremen- 
dous task  of  organizing,  legislating  for, 
judging,  and  ruling  a  great  nation  of  slaves 
just  delivered  from  400  years  of  bondage 
and  wandering  like  sheep  in  a  mountainous 
wilderness.  Paul  must  have  had  a  robust 
constitution  and  fairly  good  health  to  have 
endured  the  stonings  and  whippings,  impris- 
onments and  shipwrecks,  hungerings  and 
thirstings,  fighting  with  fierce  beasts  and 
contentions  with  yet  fiercer  men,  besides  the 
care  of  all  the  churches  which  fell  to  his  lot 
daily. 


HEALTH.  69 

John  Wesley  was  a  little  man,  weighing 
only  about  120  pounds,  but  his  health  was 
superb,  and  seems  to  have  been  due  not  so 
much  to  natural  vigor  of  constitution, 
though,  doubtless  he  had  that,  as  to  the 
regular  habits  and  healthful  plan  of  living 
which  he  adopted.  He  was  one  of  nineteen 
children,  and  his  father  was  a  poor  clergy- 
man. For  several  years  he  had  nothing  to 
eat  but  bread,  which  may  have  accounted  for 
his  small  size,  but  which  he  himself  said 
probably  laid  the  foundations  of  good  health 
which  he  afterward  enjoyed.  It  must  have 
been  whole  wheat  bread,  however,  and  not 
the  white,  starchy  stuff  of  modern  bakers. 
In  after  years  he  always  ate  sparingly,  and 
only  ate  a  few  articles  of  food  at  any  one 
meal.  He  lived  much  out  of  doors,  preached 
almost  daily  and  sometimes  several  times  a 
day  in  the  open  air.  At  the  age  of  yz  he 
makes  this  remarkable  entry  in  his  journal : 
"I  am  73  years  old  and  far  abler  to  preach 
than  I  was  at  three  and  twenty.  What  nat- 
ural means  has  God  used  to  produce  so 
wonderful  an  effect? 

"i.  Continual  exercise  and  change  of  air 
by  traveling  about  4,000  miles  a  year."  (It 
is  well  to  remember  that  he  did  his  traveling 


70  THE  soul-winner's  SECRET. 

on  horseback  and  in  a  buggy  through  Win- 
ter's storms  and  Summer's  heat.)  "2.  Constant 
rising  at  4  o'clock.  3.  The  ability,  if  ever  I 
want,  of  sleeping  immediately.  4.  The  never 
losing  a  night's  sleep  in  my  life."  (He 
mentions  several  all  nights  of  prayer  in  his 
journal,  however.)  "5.  Two  violent  fevers 
and  two  deep  consumptions.  These,  it  is 
true,  were  rough  medicines,  but  they  were 
of  admirable  service,  causing  my  flesh  to 
come  again  as  the  flesh  of  a  little  child. 
May  I  add,  lastly,  evenness  of  temper?  I 
feel,  I  grieve,  but  by  the  grace  of  God  I 
fret  at  nothing,  but  still  the  help  that  is  done 
upon  the  earth  God  doeth  it  Himself; 
and  this  He  doeth  in  answer  to  many 
prayers." 

A  similar  entry  was  made  in  his  journal  in 
1782.  He  says:  *T  have  entered  into  my 
eightieth  year,  but,  blessed  be  God !  my  time 
is  not  'labor  and  sorrow.'  I  find  no  more 
pain  or  bodily  infirmity  than  at  five  and 
twenty." 

And  beside  the  reason  given  above  he 
adds:  "This  I  will  impute,  first,  to  the  power 
of  God,  fitting  me  for  what  He  calls  me  to 
do,  and,  second,  to  my  constant  preaching, 
particularly  in  the  morning."    The  morning 


HEALTH.  71 

sermon  was  preached  at  5  o'clock  in  the  Sum- 
mer and  6  o'clock  in  the  Winter. 

Young  people  are  usually  prodigal  of  their 
health  and  strength,  and  nature  will  allow 
them  to  make  large  drafts  upon  these 
treasures,  but  keeps  strict  account,  and  will 
surely  require  interest  and  principal  in  due 
time.  It  is  a  rather  remarkable  fact  that 
often  those  who  have  had  poor  health  in 
youth  so  learn  to  take  care  of  themselves 
and  obey  the  laws  of  health  and  not  impose 
upon  their  bodies,  that  they  outlast  and  out- 
work many  who  started  out  with  a  greater 
physical   capital. 

Those  who  desire  good  health,  long  life 
and  a  cheerful  old  age  should  live  simply 
and  regularly; they  should  seek  enough  sleep 
and  at  the  same  time  be  careful  not  to  take 
too  much  sleep.  Mr.  Wesley  could  get  along 
with  six  hours'  sleep  at  night,  though  he  had 
the  happy  faculty  of  taking  naps  through 
the  day,  even  sleeping  on  horseback.  Na- 
poleon frequently  got  along  with  three 
hours'  sleep,  but  General  Grant  said  that 
when  in  the  midst  of  his  heaviest  campaigns 
he  required  nine  hours.  I  have  heard  Gen- 
eral Booth  say  that  he  needed  eight  hours 
at  least.     Women  usually  need   at  least  an 


72  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

hour  more  of  sleep  than  men.  No  rule  can 
be  laid  down  to  fit  every  case,  however,  so 
that  the  soul-winner  who  is  a  conscientious 
man  must  find  out  for  himself  what  is  best 
for  himself,  make  his  own  rule  and  keep 
it  religiously  as  unto  the  Lord. 

There  is  a  danger  of  lying  in  bed  too  long 
as  well  as  too  short  a  time.  The  Duke  of 
Wellington  said:  "When  you  find  that  you 
want  to  turn  over,  you  ought  to  turn  out."  Ly- 
ing in  bed  relaxes  the  whole  system,  and  if 
indulged  into  excess  tends  to  a  general  weak- 
ening of  the  system.  George  Miiller,  the 
great  philanthropist  of  Bristol  Orphanage 
fame,  found  the  nerves  of  his  head  weak 
and  painful,  and  thought  to  strengthen  them 
by  taking  a  nap  after  dinner  each  day,  but  in- 
stead of  getting  stronger  they  got  weaker, 
and  he  suffered  increasing  pain.  He  finally 
decided  that  the  relaxation  of  sleep  produced 
the  weakness,  and  substituted  a  cold  bath 
for  his  head,  and  found  immediate  and  in- 
creasing benefit  from   it. 

Sleep  should  be  taken  in  a  room  that  is 
well  ventilated  in  Winter  as  well  as  in  Sum- 
mer. All  good  physicians  and  hygienists 
insist  upon  this,  and  also  that  one  should  not 
sleep  in  any  garment  worn  during  the  day. 


HEALTH.  73 

Benjamin  Franklin  declared  that  he  had 
made  a  great  discovery.  He  discovered  that 
the  sun  came  up  in  the  morning.  He 
thought  that  it  would  be  a  great  financial 
saving  to  the  world  if  people  could  only  be 
brought  to  recognize  this  fact,  and  instead 
of  turning  night  into  day  by  artificial  light, 
should  go  to  bed  early  and  get  up  with  the 
sun.  No  doubt  there  would  be  many  dol- 
lars saved  and  also  much  nervous  energy. 
We  have  fallen  on  evil  days,  however,  and 
it  is  not  likely  we  shall  ever  get  back  to 
the  habits  of  our  forefathers  and  go  to  bed 
with  the  birds.  The  soul-winner,  though, 
ought  conscientiously  to  go  to  bed  as  quick- 
ly as  possible  after  meeting.  This  can  be 
done,  unless  he  foolishly  prefers  to  sit  up 
and  indulge  in  small  talk  and  late  suppers, 
in  which  case,  if  he  does  not  destroy  his 
health,  he  will  at  least  greatly  injure  it  and 
cripple   his    soul-saving   power. 

Exercise  is  also  very  necessary  for  health. 
A  Salvation  Army  officer  who  does  the  regu- 
lation amount  of  visiting,  War  Cry  selling 
and  open-air  meetings  will  get  a  great  deal 
of  exercise  in  the  walking  done,  and  if  he 
throws  back  his  shoulders  and  breathes 
deeply,    will    require    very    little    additional 


74  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

exercise.  But  as  the  human  body,  like  a 
chain,  is  not  stronger  than  at  its  weakest 
point,  a  little  general  systematic  exercise  is 
useful  to  keep  every  organ  of  the  body  in 
good  health  and  vigor. 

Caughey  went  to  England,  and  in  six 
years  saw  20^000  sinners  saved  and  10,000 
Christians  seeking  holiness,  then  broke 
down,  and  for  thirty  years  or  more  was 
an  invalid.  This  may  have  been  God's 
will  for  him,  but  I  can  hardly  believe  it  is 
His  will,  generally  speaking,  for  soul- 
winners,  and  am  persuaded  that  if 
Caughey  had  obeyed  the  injunction,  "Six 
days  shalt  thou  labor  and  do  all  thy 
work,"  and  had  religiously  taken  one  day 
in  seven  for  relaxation,  refreshment  and 
rest,  he  need  not  have  spent  those  thirty 
years  in  retirement.  Work  is  absolutely 
necessary  for  health,  but  so  also  is 
rest. 

The  heart  of  man  works  for  ninety  years 
and  in  some  instances  even  longer,  but 
it  rests  one  half  the  time.  Experience  has 
proved  that  to  rest  more  than  one-seventh 
of  the  time  is  not  well,  as  in  that  case  the* 
man  rusts  out,  and  to  rest  less  than  one- 
seventh  results  in  wearing  out. 


HEALTH.  75 

The  man  who  never  relaxes^  however 
religious  he  may  be,  is  likely  to  become 
morose,  irritable,  impatient  and  a  source 
of  anxiety  and  perplexity  to  his  dearest 
friends;  or  become  melancholy  and  full  of 
gloom,  get  into  the  dumps,  and  doubt  his 
call  to  preach. 

There  is  a  legend  that  when  the  Apostle 
John  was  nearly  loo  years  of  age,  he  was 
visited  by  a  man  who  was  anxious  to  see 
the  beloved  disciple  of  the  Lord.  The 
man  found  the  old  apostle  playing  with 
some  little  children,  rebuked  the  aged 
saint  and  told  him  it  illy  fitted  an  apostle 
of  the  Lord,  at  his  age,  to  be  indulging  in 
childish  games.  The  old  man  replied  in 
substance:  "A  bow  that  is  never  unstrung 
will  lose  its  power;  unloose  the  string  and 
it  retains  its  vigor ;  so  I  relieve,  the  ten- 
sion of  my  soul  by  indulging  in  innocent 
games  with  the  little  ones." 

The  emotions,  the  sympathies,  and  every 
power  of  mind  and  soul,  and  all  the  nerv- 
ous energies  of  the  body  have  heavy  drafts 
made  upon  them  in  soul-saving  work,  and 
the  mighty  tension  of  the  soul  and  body  at 
their  highest  point  of  efficiency,  must  be 
entirely    relaxed    periodically    in    order    to 


76  THE   soul-winner's   SECRET. 

maintain  this  effici<||,cy.  In  other  words, 
there  must  be  rest. 

I  have  found  that  when  I  get  very  tired 
and  am  least  fit  to  do  anything,  that  I 
then  feel  an  imperative  necessity  for  doing 
something,  and  then  it  is  that  I  must  put 
on  the  brakes  and  rest  by  sheer  force  of 
will,  if  need  be.  A  friend  of  mine  who  is 
an  unusually  successful  soul-winner,  has 
a  very  sensible  wife,  who,  when  she  finds 
him  nervous  and  worn^  insists  upon  his 
going  to  bed  for  a  whole  day  and  vegetat- 
ing. The  next  day  he  finds  his  nervous 
force  restored  and  is  ready  for  any  amount 
of  hard  work. 

Sir  Isaac  Holden,  the  noted  English 
Methodist,  was  a  very  delicate  little  man, 
but  by  careful  attention  to  the  laws  of  diet, 
ventilation  of  room,  etc.,  lived  to  be  ninety 
years  of  age.  Mr.  Stead  says  of  him:  "It  was 
his  way  when  ill  to  nurse  his  strength  by 
keeping  silent."  Few  people  realize  the 
waste  of  physical  force  there  is  in  constant 
small   talk. 

"Whether  ye  eat  or  drink,  or  whatso- 
ever ye  do,  do  all  to  the  glory  of  God,"  said 
Paul.  Eating  and  drinking  do  not  seem 
to    have   anything   to    do   with   soul-saving, 


HEALTH.  77 

but  nevertheless  they  have.  "Three-fourths 
of  the  diseases  that  Americans  are  afflicted 
with,"  said  a  recent  writer,  "can  be  traced  to 
improper  eating  and  drinking."  "The  fewer 
the  sweetmeatSj  the  sweeter  the  temper. 
If  you  doubt  it  and  have  a  bad  temper,  my 
friend,  let  me  implore  you  to  try  it,"  wrote 
a  wise  hygienist. 

Several  years  ago  a  friend  took  me  to 
visit  Neal  Dow,  "the  Father  of  Prohibi- 
tion," who  was  then  over  ninety  years  of 
age,  and  in  good  health.  My  friend 
asked  him  the  secret  of  his  long  life  and 
splendid  health.  The  old  man  replied: 
"First,  I  didn't  sow  any  wild  oats  in  my 
youth;  I  never  used  tobacco  nor  whisky, 
nor  stimulants  of  any  kind.  Second,  I 
have  always  gone  to  bed  early,  slept  well 
and  gotten  up  early.  Third,  I  have  always 
taken  an  active  interest  in  public  morals 
and  in  the  welfare  of  my  fellow  men. 
Fourth,  I  never  eat  anything  that  I  have 
found  out  by  experience  hurts  me.  I 
am  very  fond  of  baked  beans,  but  they  do 
me  harm,  therefore,  I  do  not  eat  them." 
Baked  beans  may  not  hurt  everybody,  but  a 
soul-winner  who  puts  God's  interests  and 
that  of  other  souls  before  his  own  pleasure, 


78  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

ought  to  show  the  good  sense  of  Neal  Dow, 
and  not  eat  anything  that  hurts  him,  how- 
ever much  he  may  like  it. 

I  knew  a  minister  who  was  afiflicted 
with  gastritis.  He  wanted  some  meat  for 
supper;  it  was  on  the  table  in  the  form  of 
mince  pie.  He  ought  to  have  known,  and 
probably  did,  that  with  the  kind  of  stomach 
he  had,  mince  pie  was  no  diet  for  him,  but 
he  liked  it.  He  ate  it,  and  he  nearly  died 
that    night. 

Rich,  fatty  suppers  should  not  be  eaten. 
Cold  bread  is  preferable  to  hot  bread.  It 
is  wise  to  follow  a  rule  of  Gladstone's: 
"Give  thirty-two  bites  to  every  mouthful," 
that  is,  give  every  tooth  a  taste. 

Rev.  Daniel  Waldo  once  said:  "I  am  an 
old  man  now;  I  have  seen  nearly  a  cen- 
tury. Do  you  want  to  know  how  to  grow 
old  slowly  and  happily?  Let  me  tell  you. 
Always  eat  slowly,  masticate  well,  go  to 
your  occupation  smiling,  keep  a  good 
nature  and  temper  everywhere." 

Dr.  Hanaford,  in  writing  to  a  public 
singer  who  was  afflicted  with  catarrh  and 
sore  throat,  said:  "I  attribute  a  part  of 
the  trouble  to  using  rich  pastry,  often  a 
prominent  cause  of  catarrh.     I  suspect  in 


HEALTH.  /9 

you  the  too  free  use  of  sugar,  confection- 
ery, salt  and  spices.  I  am  fully  convinced 
that  a  large  per  cent,  of  the  sore  throats, 
inflamed  eyes  and  nasal  passages,  and  the 
like,  so  often  attributed  to  colds,  are  due 
to  stomach  derangement  resulting  from 
large  quantities  of  common  food,  and  the 
too  free  use  of  such  heating  things  as 
sweets,  fats  and  oils  and  starches,  fine  flour 
being  prominent." 

Here  are  some  short  rules  for  one  who 
wants  good  health: 

Don't  worry.  Paul  says:  "Be  anxious 
for  nothing,  but  in  everything  by  prayer 
and  supphcation,  with  thanksgiving,  let 
your  requests  be  made  known  unto  God, 
and  the  peace  of  God  which  passeth  all 
understanding  shall  keep  your  heart  and 
mind  through  Christ  Jesus." 

"Never  despair.  Lost  hope  is  a  fatal 
disease.  One  of  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit  is 
hope." 

Work  like  a  man,  but  don't  worry  your- 
self to  death. 

Court  the  fresh  air  day  and  night. 

Don't  overeat.  Don't  starve.  "Let  your 
moderation  be  known  unto  all  men." 


80  THE  soul-winner's   SECRET. 

"Feed  a  cold,  and  you  will  have  to  starve 
a  fever." 

Don't  forget  that  "Cleanliness  is  next  to 
godliness." 

Finally.  If  you  have  poor  health  and  a 
broken  constitution,  don't  despair.  Baxter, 
one  of  the  mightiest  men  of  God  that  ever 
lived,  the  St.  Paul  and  the  General  Booth 
of  his  day,  was  a  life-long  invalid  and  suf- 
fered almost  intolerable  things,  but  he 
praised  God  for  it,  for  he  declared  it  kept 
him  alive  to  eternal  things,  weaned  him 
from  the  world  and  led  him  constantly  to 
"preach  as  a  dying  man  to  dying  men." 
David  Brainerd,  the  fragrance  of  whose 
holy  life  and  apostolic  labors  and  self- 
denial  have  filled  and  inspired  the  church 
for  almost  two  centuries,  died  of  consump- 
tion before  he  was  thirty  years  of  age.  But 
few  men  in  health  and  strength  have  been 
so  used  of  God  as  he  was  in  his  weak- 
ness. 

Personally  I  have  suffered  much  from 
broken  health,  exhausted  nerves  and  sleep- 
less nights,  and  at  one  time  feared  that  my 
work  was  done,  but  by  prayer  and  care  I 
have  been  so  far  restored  to  health  and 
strength  that  I  can  work  six  days  in  the 


HEALTH.  81 

week  with  all  my  might,  sleep  like  a  kitten, 
digest  my  food  fairly  well,  am  full  of  the 
joy  of  the  Lord,  am  happy  as  a  lark  and 
am  altogether  glad  that  I  am  alive.  Halle- 
lujah! 


82  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 


IX. 


THE    RENEWING    OF    POWER. 

Though  our  outward  man  perish,  yet  the  in- 
ward  man  is  renewed  day   by   day. — Paul. 

To  do  God's  work  we  must  have  God's 
power.  Therefore  Jesus  said:  "Tarry  ye 
in  Jerusalem  until  ye  be  endued  with  power 
from  on  high."  (Luke  24:  49.)  And  again 
He  said:  "Ye  shall  receive  power  when  the 
Holy  Ghost  is  come  upon  you."  (Acts 
i:  8.) 

The  soul-winner  receives  this  power 
when  he  is  sanctified  wholly  and  filled 
with  the  Spirit,  and  he  need  never  lose  it. 
But  while  the  Holy  Spirit  abides  with  the 
believer,  there  yet  seems  to  be  need  for 
frequent  renewals  of  the  power  He  bestows. 
And,  thank  God,  He  has  made  ample  pro- 


THE  RENEWING   OF    POWER.  83 

vision  to  meet  this  need.  "They  that  wait 
upon  the  Lord  shall  renew  their  strength," 
said  Isaiah.  "Wait  on  the  Lord;  be  of 
good  courage,  and  He  shall  strengthen 
thine  heart;  wait,  I  say,  on  the  Lord," 
cries  David. 

Years  ago  President  Asa  Mahan  wrote  as 
follows  of  his  old  friend:  "The  extraordin- 
ary power  which  attended  the  preaching  of 
President  Finney  during  the  early  years  of 
his  ministry  was  chiefly  owing  to  a  special 
baptism  of  the  Spirit  which  he  received  not 
long  after  his  conversion;  hence  it  was 
that  when  through  him  the  'violated  law 
spake  out  its  thunders,'  it  did  seem  as  if 
we  had  in  truth  'come  unto  the  mount  that 
might  be  touched,  and  that  burned  with 
fire,  and  unto  blackness  and  darkness  and 
tempest  and  the  sound  of  a  trumpet  and  the 
voice  of  words.'  But  when  he  spoke  of 
Christ,  then  indeed  did  his  'doctrine  drop 
as  the  rain,  and  his  speech  distil  as  the  dew, 
as  the  small  rain  upon  the  tender  herb  and 
as  the  showers  upon  the  mown  grass.'  The 
reason  also  why  he  is  bringing  forth  such 
wondrous  fruit  in  his  old  age  is  that  while 
his  whole  ministry  has  been  under  the 
power  of  the    Spirit,   his   former   baptisms 


84  THE  soul-winner's  SEC31ET. 

have  been  renewed  with  increasing  power 
and  frequency  during  a  few  years  past." 

The  need  for  these  frequent  renewings 
and  anointings  does  not  necessarily  arise 
from  backsliding.  Sometimes  the  soul  feels 
the  need  of  a  renewal  of  its  power  when 
confronted  by  great  opposition,  danger 
and  powerful  foes.  The  apostles  were  filled 
with  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  had  not  only 
won  their  great  pentecostal  victory,  but 
many  others  as  well,  when  suddenly  a  stub- 
born wall  of  opposition  arose  before  them. 
They  were  arrested  by  the  rulers,  thrust  into 
prison,  brought  before  the  high  priest,  sharply 
questioned  by  what  power  and  name  they 
were  working  their  miracles,  and  then  when 
no  ground  for  punishment  could  be  found, 
they  were  threatened  and  commanded  to 
preach  no  more  in  the  name  of  Jesus. 

When  they  were  let  go  they  went  to  their 
own  people,  told  them  what  had  happened, 
and  began  a  sweet,  childHke,  Heaven- 
storming  prayer  meeting,  told  the  Lord  the 
story,  too,  and  cried  to  Him  to  show  forth 
His  power,  and  then  a  wonderful  thing 
happened;  Pentecost  was  repeated;  "the 
place  was  shaken  where  they  were  assem- 
bled together,  and  they  were  all  filled  with 


THE  RENEWING   OF   POWER.  85 

the  Holy  Ghost,  and  they  spake  the  word  of 
God  with  boldness,  and  with  great  power 
gave  the  apostles  witness  of  the  resur- 
rection of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  great  peace 
was  upon  them  all." 

They  waited  before  the  Lord  and  their 
strength  was  renewed,  their  power  rein- 
forced from  Heaven,  their  past  victories 
put  into  the  shade  and  "a  great  com- 
pany of  the  priests  were  obedient  to  the 
faith." 

Sometimes  the  need  for  this  renewal  of 
strength  arises  after  great  victories.  For 
victory  is  usually  secured  as  the  result  of 
great  spiritual  and  mental  activity,  and 
often  physical  activity  as  well,  and  it  is 
but  natural  that  there  should  be  a  reaction; 
the  pendulum,  if  left  alone,  swings  to  the 
other  extreme.  Depression  may  follow, 
the  powers  of  soul  and  mind  relax,  joyful 
emotions  subside,  and  the  inexperienced 
soul-winner  may  at  this  point  get  into  great 
perplexity,  and  suffer  from  fierce  tempta- 
tion, and  strain  himself  to  keep  up  his 
accustomed  spiritual  activity,  crying  out 
with  David,  "Why  art  thou  cast  down,  O 
my  soul,  and  why  art  thou  disquieted  with- 
in me?"    And  again,  "My  flesh  and  my  heart 


86  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

f  aileth,"and  imagine  himself  to  be  backsliding. 
But  what  is  needed  now  is  not  so  much 
anxious  wrestling  with  God  as  quiet  wait- 
ing upon  God  for  a  renewal  of  power,  say- 
ing to  his  soul,  "Hope  thou  in  God,  for  I 
shall  yet  praise  Him,  who  is  the  health  of 
my  countenance,  and  my  God,"  and  though 
heart  and  flesh  do  fail,  "yet  God  is  the 
strength  of  my  heart,  and  my  portion  for- 
ever." At  such  times  the  strength  of  the 
soul  is  to  sit  still  in  quietness  and  confi- 
dence.    (Is.  30:  7,   15.) 

I  once  heard  a  wise  old  evangelist,  one 
of  the  mightiest  this  country  has  produced, 
say  that  while  at  home  after  a  season  of 
rest,  the  Spirit  of  God  would  come  upon  him, 
leading  him  to  earnest  prayer  and  travail 
for  the  salvation  of  men.  This  was  God's 
way  of  preparing  him  for  a  campaign,  and 
for  victory,  and  away  he  would  go  for  battle 
and  siege,  to  rescue  the  souls  of  men,  and 
never  did  he  fail  to  win.  But  after  a  while 
there  seemed  to  be  an  abatement  of  power, 
when  he  would  return  home  for  another 
season  of  rest  and  quiet,  waiting  upon  God 
for  the  renewal  of  his  strength.  And  thus 
he  continued  till  he  was  past  eighty,  still 
bringing  forth  fruit  in  old  age. 


THE   RENEWING   OF   POWER.  8/ 

Again,  there  is  sometimes  need  of  a  re- 
newal of  power  owing  to  weakness  and 
infirmity  of  the  flesh.  Paul  must  have 
received  a  great  addition  of  power  when, 
instead  of  removing  his  "thorn,"  Jesus  said 
to  him,  "My  grace  is  sufficient  for  thee,  for 
My  strength  is  made  perfect  in  weakness." 
And  such  was  the  uplift  that  Paul  got 
at  that  time  that  ever  afterward  he  took 
"pleasure  in  infirmities,  in  reproaches,  in 
necessities,  in  persecutions,  in  distresses,  for 
Christ's  sake,"  glorying  in  them,  since 
through  them  the  power  of  Christ  rested 
upon  him,  and  in  weakness  he  was  made 
strong.  Spiritual  power  is  not  necessarily 
dependent  upon  physical  energy,  and  how- 
ever much  he  may  be  afflicted  with  in- 
firmities, there  are  mighty  enduements 
of  power  for  the  soul-winner  if  he  intel- 
ligently and  with  quiet  and  persistent  faith 
seeks  them  from  on  high. 

There  will  be  times  of  loneliness  and 
spiritual  agony  such  as  Jesus  suffered 
in  the  Garden,  or  Elijah  when  he  felt  that 
all  the  prophets  were  slain,  and  there  was 
none  true  to  God  in  Israel  but  himself.  Or 
again,  when  there  is  widespread  barrenness 
and  desolation,  when  revivals  have  ceased, 


88  THE  SOUL- winner's   SECRET. 

and  worldliness  sweeps  in  like  a  flood,  and 
there  is  apparently  no  vision^  and  God 
seems  silent,  and  the  devil  mocks  and 
taunts,  then  the  soul-winner  will  need  to 
have  his  spiritual  strength  renewed.  And 
he  may  fully  expect  such  a  renewal.  The 
angels  are  all  round  about  him^  and  the 
heavens  are  bending  over  him,  and  Jesus 
has  lost  none  of  His  tender  interest  and 
sympathy  for  him.  An  angel  came  and 
strengthened  Jesus  in  His  agony  (Luke 
2,2'.  43),  and  an  angel  strengthened 
Elijah  for  his  long  and  lonely  journey, 
and  an  angel  came  to  Daniel  and 
said,  "O  man,  greatly  beloved,  fear  not; 
peace  be  unto  thee;  be  strong,  yea,  be 
strong."  And  not  only  an  angel,  but  the 
Lord  Himself  will  surely  empower  His 
trusting  workers.  It  was  Jesus  that  cheered 
Paul  in  the  chief  captain's  castle  (Acts  23: 
11),  and  John  on  the  lonely  Isle  of  Pat- 
mos  (Rev.  i:  17),  and  so  He  still  cheers 
and  strengthens  His  servants  and  warriors. 
Bless   His   name! 

These  renewals  of  power  are  not  always 
necessarily  of  an  extraordinary  character. 
There  are  sometimes  great  uplifts  of  physi- 
cal   strength    without    any   apparent    cause, 


THE  RENEWING   OF   POWER.  89 

but  ordinarily  a  man's  physical  strength 
is  renewed  by  rest  and  the  timely  eating 
of  proper  food.  And  so  there  may  be  times 
when  the  Spirit  of  God  falls  upon  the  soul- 
winner,  giving  him  great  uplifts  and  visions 
and  courage.  But  ordinarily  power  comes 
by  the  use  of  the  simple  means  of  much 
regular  prayer  and  patient,  diligent  search- 
ing of  God's  Word  and  a  daily  listening  to 
God's  voice.  It  is  renewed  like  fire,  not 
by  the  fall  of  lightning  from  Heaven,  but 
by  the  addition  of  new  fuel;  like  physical 
strength,  not  by  some  hypodermic  injec- 
tion of  fresh  blood,  but  by  proper  food.  David 
calls  upon  his  soul  to  bless  God  "who  satis- 
fieth  thy  mouth  with  good  things  so  that 
thy  youth  is  renewed  like  the  eagle's."  (Ps. 
103:    5.) 

This  will  require  time  and  attention 
on  our  part,  but  it  will  be  time  well 
spent.  It  is  by  appropriate  food,  then, 
that  the  soul  is  strengthened.  Jesus 
told  us  what  that  food  was  when  He  said, 
"Man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone,  but 
by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the 
mouth  of  God."  (Matt.  4:  4.)  And  does 
not  this  correspond  to  Paul's  statement  that 
though  the  outward  man  was  perishing,  yet 


90  THE  soul-winner's   SECRET. 

"the  inward  man  is  renewed  day  by  day?" 
And  with  that  passage  that  says  "The  Lord 
revealed  Himself  unto  Samuel  in  Shiloh 
by  the  word  of  the  Lord?"  It  is  the  Lord 
that  renews  our  strength,  but  He  does  it 
not  in  some  mysterious  way,  but  by  means 
of  His  Word,  which  we  read  and  meditate 
upon  and  appropriate  by  faith.  Through  it 
we  see  Jesus  and  come  to  know  our  Lord. 
Bless  His  name! 

My  own  strength  is  usually  renewed  by 
the  opening  up  of  some  new  truth,  or  the 
powerful  application  of  some  promises,  or 
portion  of  the  Word  of  God  to  my  soul, 
which  I  am  enabled  to  make  my  own  by  a 
definite  and  bold,  affectionate  and  dare-devil 
act  of  faith  in  secret  prayer. 


AN    UNDIVIDED    HEART.  91 


X. 


AN     UNDIVIDED     HEART. 


Unite  my  heart. — David. 

He  who  thinks  to  succeed  in  this  infinite 
business  of  saving  souls  with  a  heart  that 
is  divided  as  yet  knows  nothing  as  he  ought 
to    know    concerning   the    matter. 

That  a  man  may  by  personal  magnetism, 
grace  of  manners,  power  or  persuasiveness 
of  speech,  and  a  certain  skill  in  playing 
upon  the  emotions  and  self-interest  of  the 
people,  create  an  excitement  that  fairly 
simulates  a  revival,  and  yet  have  a  divided 
heart,  I  admit;  but  that  he  can  bring  men  to 
a  thorough  repentance  and  renunciation  of 
sin,  a  hearty  embrace  of  the  Cross,  an 
affectionate  surrender  to  Jesus  as  a  personal 
Saviour  and  Master  who  requires  deep 
humility    and    meekness    and    tender    love 


92  THE  soul-winner's  SECRET. 

as  the  marks  of  His  disciples  is  hard  to  be 
proved. 

As  certainly  as  like  begets  like,  so  cer- 
tainly will  the  soul-winner  put  the  mark 
of  his  own  spirit  and  consecration  upon 
the  people  he  influences;  if  he  is  himself 
not  more  than  half  won  to  the  cause  of 
his  lowly  Master,  he  will  not  more  than 
half  win  others.  His  task  is  the  mightiest 
to  which  men  were  ever  set. 

The  physical  scientist  manipulates  and 
changes  dead  matter,  the  newspaper  man 
seeks  principally  to  amuse  or  interest  people 
for  the  passing  hour;  the  lawyer  and  poli- 
tician simply  seek  to  change  and  mould 
the  opinions  of  men;  but  the  soul-winner 
is  dealing  with  fundamentals.  His  object 
is  not  merely  to  change  the  opinions  and 
conduct,  but  to  change  character;  to  work 
a  moral  revolution  in  the  affections,  the  dis- 
positions, the  wills  of  men;  to  turn  them 
from  temporal  things  which  they  see,  to 
eternal  things,  which  they  do  not  see, 
from  all  vices  to  virtues,  from  utter 
selfishness  to  utter  self-sacrifice,  and  often 
in  spite  of  all  present  self-interest,  and  in 
the  face  of  the  combined  opposition  of  the 
world,  the  flesh  and  the  devil.     His  object 


AN    UNDIVIDED    HEART.  93 

is  not  alone  to  save  them  from  the  guilt 
and  penalty  of  sin,  but  from  the  pollution 
and  the  power  and  the  love  of  sin.  Nor  is 
it  merely  to  save  men  from  sin,  which  is 
rather  a  negative  work,  but  to  save  them 
into  all  goodness  and  love  and  holiness 
through  a  vital  and  eternal  union  with 
Jesus — a  union  that  gives  perpetual  vigor 
and  energy  and  fruitfulness  in  righteous- 
ness to  all  the  powers  of  the  soul,  filling  it 
with  grace  and  truth. 

This  is  no  little  work,  and  can  never  be 
the  work  of  a  man  with  a  divided  heart. 
It  is  like  turning  Niagara  Falls  back  upon  its 
source,  or  causing  the  sun  and  the  moon 
to  stand  still  on  Ajalon;  it  can  only  be  done 
by  God's  power,  and  that  power  is  only 
fully  bestowed  upon,  and  only  works  freely 
in  and  through  those  whose  hearts  are  per- 
fect toward  Him. 

The  soul-winner,  then,  must  once  and  for 
all,  abandon  himself  to  the  Lord  and  to  the 
Lord's  work,  and,  having  put  his  hand  to 
the  plow,  must  not  look  back,  if  he  would 
succeed  in  this  mighty  business. 

He  must  love  his  Lord  and  love  his  work, 
and  stick  to  it  through  all  difficulties,  per- 
plexities and  discouragements,  and  not  be 


94  THE  soul-winner's  SECRET. 

given  to  change,  for  there  is  no  discharge 
in   this   war. 

Here  it  is  that  many  fail;  they  have  not 
a  single  eye.  They  make  provisions  for 
retreat.  They  are  doubleminded,  like  an 
officer  I  knew,  who  dabbled  in  photography 
till  it  divided  his  life  and  hearty  and  got 
him  out  of  the  work;  like  a  minister  of 
whom  I  heard  the  other  day,  who  reads 
another  man's  sermons  to  his  people,  while 
he  studies  law,  saying  that  when  he  gets 
a  poor  appointment  he  will  fall  back  on  the 
law  and  leave  the  ministry,  forgetting  Paul's 
words  to  Timothy:  "No  man  that  warreth 
entangleth  himself  with  the  affairs  of  this 
life;  that  he  may  please  Him  that  hath 
chosen  him  to  be  a  soldier."    (2  Tim.  2:  4.) 

By-and-bye  such  men  leave  the  work  God 
sets  them  to  do,  because,  as  they  say,  they 
have  not  been  treated  well,  when  the  fact 
is,  their  minds  being  divided,  they  cease  to 
work  well;  they  no  longer  give  themselves 
wholly  to  it,  and  the  people  feel  a  lack  of 
interest  and  power,  hungering  souls  that 
look  for  bread  receive  a  stone,  poor  sinners, 
on  the  road  to  Hell,  and  possibly  on  the 
brink  of  ruin,  go  from  their  cold  and  heart- 
less    services     unawakened     and     unsaved. 


AN  UNDIVIDED  HEART.  95 

They  lost  their  grip  first  on  God  and  then 
on  the  crowd,  and  their  superiors,  per- 
plexed to  know  what  to  do  with  them,  and 
where  to  place  them,  since  the  people  no 
longer  want  them,  are  blamed.  But  blame 
others  as  they  will,  the  blame  still  lies  with 
themseK'es. 

No  great  work  has  ever  been  accomplished 
without  abandonment  to  it. 

Michael  Angelo  said  his  work  was  his  wife 
and  the  statues  he  made  were  his  children. 

Edison  is  so  wedded  to  his  work  that  all 
other  things  are  forgotten  and  set  aside  in 
the    pursuit    of    his    marvelous    inventions. 

Demosthenes,  the  greatest  of  ancient  orators, 
if  not  the  greatest  of  all  time,  was  hissed 
off  the  platform  at  his  first  appearance.  His 
figure  was  unprepossessing,  and  his  voice 
weak  and  harsh,  but  he  determined  to  be 
heard.  He  devoted  himself  to  his  studies, 
shaved  one  side  of  his  head  lest  he  should 
be  led  into  society,  and  practised  elocution 
by  day  and  by  night.  To  perfect  his  enun- 
ciation he  filled  his  mouth  half-full  of  peb- 
bles and  practised  while  climbing  a  hill; 
and  that  he  might  successfully  contend 
againts  the  thunders  of  the  Athenian  mob, 
he   went   to   the   seashore   and    strengthened 


96  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

his  voice  by  practising  it  against  the  thun- 
der of  the  waves. 

Lord  Beaconsfield  stood  for  parliament 
five  times,  and  at  last  won  his  seat.  When 
he  first  attempted  to  speak  he  was  laughed 
from  the  floor,  but  he  sat  down  saying, 
"You  will  listen  to  me  yet;"  and  they  did, 
v/hen,  as  prime  minister  of  England,  he 
arbitrated  the  destinies  of  Europe  and 
crowned  Victoria  Empress  of  India. 

"How  long  did  it  take  you  to  prepare  that 
address?"  was  asked  of  a  great  speaker. 
"All  my  lifetime  in  general,  and  fifteen  min- 
utes   in    particular,"    he    replied. 

When  Benjamin  Franklin,  as  a  poor  boy, 
opened  a  printing  shop,  a  prosperous  com- 
petitor said  he  would  drive  him  out  of  town. 
Franklin  showed  him  a  piece  of  black  bread 
from  which  he  dined,  and  a  pail  of  water 
from  which  he  drank,  and  asked  if  he 
thought  a  man  who  could  live  on  fare  like 
that  and  work  sixteen  hours  a  day  could  be 
driven  out  of  town ! 

Who  knows  the  name  of  that  competitor? 
and  who  has  not  heard  of  Franklin? 

If  men  engaged  in  secular  pursuits  are 
thus  given  up  to  their  work  and  consumed 
with  their  purpose,  how  much  more  should 


AN  UNDIVIDED  HEART.  97 

the  soul-winner  be,  he  who  is  fighting  for 
righteousness  and  holiness,  for  the  kingdom 
of  love  upon  earth,  rescuing  souls  from  the 
power  of  sin  and  the  danger  of  eternal  burn- 
ings? 

If  God  has  set  you  to  win  souls,  O  my 
brother,  make  no  provision  for  the  flesh,  to 
fulfil  the  lusts  thereof.  Cut  the  bridge  down 
behind  you.  Remember  Paul's  words  to 
Timothy:  "Give  thyself  wholly  to  them,  that 
thy  profiting  may  appear  to  all." 

Let  your  eye  be  single,  make  no  plan  for 
retreat,  allow  no  thought  of  it.  Remember 
Paul's  "Woe  is  me,  if  I  preach  not  the 
Gospel." 

Like  Jesus,  set  your  face  steadfastly 
toward  your  Jerusalem,  your  cross,  your 
kingdom,  your  glory,  when,  having  turned 
many  to  righteousness,  you  "shall  shine  as 
the  stars  for  ever  and  ever."     (Dan.  12:  3.) 

You  may  be  ignorant  and  illiterate,  your 
abilities  may  be  very  limited,  you  may  have 
a  stammering  tongue,  and  be  utterly  lacking 
in  culture,  but  you  can  have  an  undivided, 
a  perfect  heart  toward  God  and  the  work 
He  has  set  }  ou  to  do,  and  this  is  more  than 
all  culture  and  all  education,  all  gifts  and 
graces    of   person    and    brain.      If   God    has 

H 


98  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

bestowed  any  of  these  upon  you,  see  to  it 
that  they  are  sanctified,  and  that  your  trust 
is  not  in  them.  But  if  He  has  denied  them 
to  you,  He  yet  hath  called  you  to  the  fellow- 
ship of  His  Son,  and  to  His  service.  Be 
not  dismayed;  it  is  not  the  perfect  head, 
but  the  perfect  heart  which  God  blesses. 
For  has  He  not  said,  "The  eyes  of  the  Lord 
run  to  and  fro  throughout  the  whole  earth 
to  show  Himself  strong  in  behalf  of  them 
whose  heart  is  perfect  toward  Him"? 

At  this  point  none  need  fail,  and  yet,  what 
an  awful  thing! — some  will  fail,  and  after 
having,  as  they  say,  prophesied  in  His  name, 
and  in  His  name  cast  out  devils,  and  in  His 
name  done  many  wondrous  works,  shall  hear 
Him  profess,  "I  never  knew  you;  depart 
from  Me,  ye  that  work  iniquity." 

"Let  nothing  now  my  heart  divide, 
Since  with  Thee  I  am  crucified, 

And  lire  to  God  in  Thee. 
Dead  to  the  world  and  all  its  toys, 
Its  idle  pomps  and  fading  joys. 

Jesus,    my   glory    be." 


FINANCE.  99 


XL 


FINANCE. 


The  soul-winner,  to  be  successful,  must  not 
be  overanxious  about  finance,  but  must 
laugh  at  the  devil  and  all  his  fears,  and  count 
God  faithful,  and  trust  Him  to  supply  all 
his  needs.  He  should  again  and  again  read 
over  the  last  part  of  the  sixth  chapter  of 
St.  Matthew,  beginning  with  verse  19.  What 
could  be  stronger  and  more  positive  than 
the  assurance  of  Jesus  that  his  needs  shall 
be  supplied? 

When  I  was  a  little  fellow  I  never  worried 
'Tiy  head  or  heart  about  my  next  pair  of 
shoes,  or  where  my  breakfast  was  to  come 
from.  My  father  was  dead,  so  my  mother 
did  all  that  worrying,  and  I  played  and 
trusted  her  and  had  a  good  time.  Well, 
now,  Jesus  says  we  are  to  take  no  thought 


100  THE  SOXJL-WINNER's  SECRET. 

(by  that  He  means  no  anxious  thought — 
see  Revised  Version)  what  we  shall  eat  or 
what  we  shall  put  on.  "Is  not  the  life  more 
than  meat  and  the  body  more  than  raiment?" 
And  if  God  gives  you  life,  which  is  the 
greater,  will  He  not  give  you  meat  to  sustain 
life?  And  if  He  allows  you  still  to  live  in 
your  body  for  a  season,  will  He  not  give 
you  raiment  to  protect  your  body?  "Behold 
the  fowls  of  the  air,  for  they  sow  not,  neither 
do  they  reap,  nor  gather  into  barns,  yet  your 
Heavenly  Father  feedeth  them.  Are  ye  not 
much  better  than  they?  Therefore  take  no 
thought,  saying.  What  shall  we  eat,  or 
what  shall  we  drink,  or  wherewithal  shall 
we  be  clothed?  for  your  Heavenly  Father 
knoweth  that  ye  have  need  of  all  these 
things." 

Jesus  would  have  me  trust  my  Heavenly 
Father  as  I  did  my  mother.  Then  I  can 
be  a  child  again,  bless  the  Lord!  and  all 
I  have  to  do  is  to  pray  and  obey  and  trust 
the  Lord,  and  have  a  good  time  before  the 
Lord,  and  He  will  supply  my  needs  and  the 
needs  of  my  little  ones  whom  He  has  given 
me.  Yes,  that  is  what  He  means,  for  He 
says,  "Seek  first  the  Kingdom  of  God  and 
His  righteousness  and  all  these  things  shall 


FINANCE.  101 

be  added  unto  you."  And  this  freedom  from 
worrying  anxiety  is  the  privilege  and  duty 
of  all  soul-winners,  from  the  care-free 
worker  who  has  only  to  get  bread  for  his 
own  mouth,  to  him  who  has  a  large  family 
to  feed  and  clothe,  or  the  man  with  a 
thousand-fold  financial  responsibility  like 
Moses,  or  George  Muller,  or  Hudson  Taylor, 
or  our  God-honored  and  beloved  General. 
Faith — simple  faith,  unmixed  faith  in  God's 
promise — can  no  more  exist  in  the  same 
heart  with  worry  than  can  fire  and  water, 
or  light  and  darkness,  consort  together; 
one  extinguishes  the  other.  Faith  in  the 
plain,  unmistakable  promise  of  God,  begotten 
by  the  Holy  Ghost,  so  links  the  soul-winner 
to  Jesus,  so  yokes  them  up  and  unites  them 
in  partnership  together,  that  the  burden  and 
care  is  the  Lord's,  since  "the  cattle  on  a 
thousand  hills  and  the  silver  and  the  gold 
are  His;"  and  He  would  have  His  child 
trust  Him,  walk  the  waves  with  Him,  never 
doubt  Him,  shout  the  victory  through  Him 
and  triumph  over  all  fear  and  all  the  power 
of  the  enemy  in  Him.  I  do  declare  that  ac- 
cordingto  the  Word  of  God  this  is  His  will  for 
the  soul-winner,  and  this  secret  every  true 
soul-winner  must  and  does  know.  Hallelujah! 


102  THE  soul-winner's   SECRET. 

God  does  not  send  the  soul-winner  to  a 
v/arfare  at  his  own  charges,  but  according 
to  Paul,  "will  supply  all  your  need  according 
to   His    riches    in    glory    by    Christ    Jesus." 

God's  commissary  department  is  abundantly 
full  and  runs  on  schedule  time,  but  the 
worried  and  anxious  unbeliever  wants  Him 
to  run  ahead  of  schedule  time.  No,  no ! 
He  may,  in  order  to  test  and  strengthen 
faith,  not  provide  the  second  suit  until  the 
first  one  is  ready  to  be  laid  aside,  and  some- 
times after  supper  he  may  allow  you  to 
go  to  bed  not  knowing  where  the  breakfast 
is  to  come  from,  but  it  will  come  at  break- 
fast time.  "He  knoweth  that  ye  have  need 
of  these  things,"  so  trust  Him,  as  does  the 
sparrow.  The  wee  thing  tucks  its  tiny  head 
under  its  little  wing  and  sleeps,  not  knowing 
where  it  will  find  its  breakfast,  and  when 
the  day  dawns  it  chirps  its  merry  note  of 
praise,  and  God  opens  His  great  hand  and 
feeds  it.  "The  eyes  of  all  wait  upon  Thee 
and  Thou  givest  them  their  meat  in  due 
season.  Thou  openest  Thine  hand  and 
satisfiest  the  desire  of  every  living  thing," 
said  the  Psalmist  (Ps.  145:  15,  16),  and 
"Ye  are  of  more  value  than  many  sparrows," 
said  Jesus. 


FINANCE.  103 

O  my  anxious  brother,  trust  Him!  He 
will  not  fail  you.  In  this,  as  in  all  other 
things,  the  assurance  holds  good,  that  "there 
hath  no  temptation  taken  you  but  such  as 
is  common  to  man ;  but  God  is  faithful,  who 
will  not  suffer  you  to  be  tempted  above  that 
ye  are  able,  but  will  with  the  temptation 
make  a  way  of  escape  that  ye  may  be  able 
to  bear  it."  (i  Cor.  lo:  13.)  Hallelujah! 
I  have  proved  this  in  times  past,  and  I  may 
have  to  prove  it  again,  but  "God  is  faithful." 
Glory!  Glory!  Glory!  And  the  devil  is  a 
liar  and   always  will  be. 

Finney's  clothes  got  threadbare,  but  he 
was  so  intent  on  getting  souls  saved  that 
he  didn't  notice  it  until  someone  came  along 
and  measured  him  for  a  new  suit.  I  had  an 
almost  similar  experience  once.  God  knew 
when  the  old  suit  needed  replacing  by  a  new 
one,  and  He  sent  it  along  on  time. 

Who  can  read  Muller's  "Life  of  Trust," 
without  seeing  God's  hand  in  the  supply  of 
all  our  needs?  And  if  the  experiences  of 
the  officers  of  The  Salvation  Army  were 
written,  it  would  make  a  book  equally  inter- 
esting, showing  the  unfailing  faithfulness 
of  God  in  supplying  daily  need.  Oh,  that 
soul-winners  would  not  lose  their  simplicity 


104  THE  soul-winner's   SECRET. 

and  forget  these  mercies  and  past  faithful- 
ness, which  are  certain  pledges  of  future 
ones ! 

Many  a  man  loses  his  love  for  souls  and 
his  power  to  win  them  by  allowing  covet- 
ousness  or  financial  anxiety  to  crowd 
childlike  trust  out  of  his  heart.  "Who  is 
there  among  you  that  would  shut  the  door 
for  nought?  neither  do  ye  kindle  a  fire  upon 
mine  altars  for  nought,"  cried  the  Lord  to 
the  backslidden,  covetous  prophets  of  old. 
They  would  do  nothing  until  they  knew 
they  should  be  well  paid  for  it.  It  was  not 
souls,   but   money,   they   worked   for. 

Contrast  with  this  Paul's  unselfish, 
disinterested  devotion.  He  says:  "I  have 
coveted  no  man's  silver  or  gold  or  apparel; 
yea,  ye  yourselves  know  that  these  hands 
have  ministered  unto  my  necessities  and  to 
them  that  were  with  me.  I  have  showed 
you  all  things,  how  that  so  laboring  ye  ought 
to  support  the  weak  and  to  remember  the 
words  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  how  He  said. 
It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive." 
And  again  he  says:  "I  seek  not  yours  but 
you."  He  even  goes  so  far  as  to  say  when 
they  gave  him  anything,  "Not  that  I  desire 
a  gift,  but  I   desire   fruit  that  may  abound 


FINANCE.  105 

to  your  account."  It  was  not  the  benefit 
that  he  derived  from  receiving,  so  much  as 
the  benefit  they  would  derive  from  giving 
that  rejoiced  his  heart.  In  writing  to  the 
Phih'ppians,  who  had  sent  him  a  donation, 
he  gives  us  a  bit  of  his  inner  experience. 
He  says,  "I  rejoice  in  the  Lord  greatly  that 
now  at  the  last  your  care  of  me  hath 
flourished  again,  wherein  ye  were  also  careful 
but  ye  lacked  opportunity.  Not  that  I  speak 
in  respect  of  want,  for  I  have  learned  in 
whatsoever  state  I  am  therewith  to  be  content. 
I  know  both  how  to  be  abased  and  how  to 
abound ;  everywhere  and  in  all  things  I  am 
instructed  both  to  be  full  and  to  be  hungry, 
both  to  abound  and  to  suffer  need.  I  can 
c^o  all  things  through  Christ  which  strength- 
eneth  me."  And  in  writing  to  Timothy,  he 
says :  "A  bishop  must  not  be  greedy  of 
filthy  lucre,"  and  Peter  says  we  are  to  "feed 
the  flock  of  God  not  for  filthy  lucre  but  of 
a  ready  mind." 

In  all  this  I  do  not  contend  that  God  would 
not  have  the  soul-winner  amply  supported 
and  relieved  of  financial  burden  and  care  by 
the  people  for  whom  he  gives  his  life.  God 
says:  'The  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire;" 
and  He  forbade  the  muzzling  of  the  ox  that 


106  THE  soul-winner's  SECRET. 

trod  out  the  corn ;  and  by  the  tithing  system, 
which  all  Christians  ought  to  adopt,  every 
Jew  was  to  assist  in  the  support  of  the 
ministry. 

But  what  I  do  contend  for  is,  that  the  soul- 
winner  must  not  be  anxious  about  his  bread, 
but  must  beware  of  covetousness,  must  seek 
to  save  souls,  and  if  they  do  not  support 
him  as  he  would  wish,  must  still  love  them 
unto  death  and  seek  their  salvation,  and 
cheerfully  and  triumphantly  trust  the  God 
who  fed  Elijah  and  rained  manna  from 
heaven  for  forty  years  to  feed  a  million 
Israelites  to  find  a  way  to  feed  him.  I 
maintain  against  all  devils  and  all  unbeliefs 
that  God  will  not  disappoint  him,  but  will 
"feed  him  with  the  finest  of  the  wheat  and 
satisfy  him  as  with  marrow  and  fatness." 


SAVING  TRUTH.  107 


XII. 


SAVING   TRUTH. 


All  truth  is  precious,  but  not  all  truth  is 
adapted  to  secure  the  immediate  conversion 
and  sanctification  of  men,  any  more  than  all 
medicine  is  adapted  to  cure  heart-disease  or 
rheumatism. 

There  are  certain  truths  which,  preached 
in  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  are  as  much 
adapted  to  convert  and  sanctify  souls  as 
food  to  satisfy  hunger,  or  fire  to  melt  ice; 
while  there  are  other  truths,  equally  Biblical, 
that  will  no  more  secure  such  results  than 
will  the  truths  of  the  multiplication  table 
comfort  a  broken-hearted  mother  while 
mourning  for  her  lost  children,  or  those  of 
astronomy  quiet  a  guilty  conscience  roused 
from  the  slumber  of  sin. 


108  THE  soul-winner's   SECRET. 

Some  time  since  I  read  the  amazing  and 
humbling  statement  that  "there  were  over 
3,000  churches  in  two  of  the  leading  denom- 
inations of  this  country  that  did  not  report 
a  single  member  added  by  profession  of  faith 
last  year."  Well  may  the  writer  add,  "Think 
of  more  than  3,000  ministers  in  two  denom- 
inations world-renowned  for  their  schools 
and  culture,  preaching  a  whole  year,  and 
aided  by  deacons  and  Sabbath-school  teach- 
ers and  Christian  parents  and  church 
members  and  prayer  meetings  and  Sabbath 
schools  and  Christian  Endeavor  Societies, 
and  helps  and  helpers  innumerable,  and  all 
without  one   conversion !" 

Why  this  stupendous  failure?  It  cannot 
be  that  truth  was  not  preached  and  taught 
in  the  Sunday  schools  and  prayer  meetings. 
These  preachers  and  teachers  and  parents 
were  orthodox,  cultured,  and  skilled  in 
Biblical  lore.  No  doubt  they  preached  and 
taught  truth  from  one  end  of  the  year  to  the 
other,  but  it  was  not  the  truth — the  truth  that 
saves,  the  truth  that  first  smites  the  con- 
science, lays  bare  the  secrets  of  the  heart, 
and  arouses  the  slumbering  soul  until,  self- 
convicted,  it  feels  that  every  man  it  meets 
is  acquainted  with  its  guilt,  and  every  wind 


SAVING  TRUTH.  109 

and  every  footfall  is  an  accusing  voice,  and 
no  cover  can  hide  from  God's  searching  eye, 
and  when  conviction  has  wrought  its  purpose, 
and  penitence  is  complete,  whispers  of  for- 
giveness and  peace,  and  offers  mercy  and 
salvation  full  and  free  through  the  bleeding 
Lamb  of  God,  "before  the  world's  founda- 
tion slain." 

Such  truth  preached  faithfully  and  con- 
stantly in  these  pulpits  and  churches — ^not 
timidly  and  feebly,  like  powder  and  shot 
hurled  by  a  child's  hand,  but  rather  with 
power,  like  thunderbolts  from  the  cannon's 
mouth — might  have  set  the  nation  in  a  blaze 
of  revival  fire. 

The  fact  is  there  are  different  kinds  or 
grades  of  truth  for  different  classes  of 
people,  just  as  there  are  different  medicines 
for  various  diseases,  and  food  for  different 
ages  and  constitutions.  Jesus  declares  this 
when  He  says,  "I  have  yet  many  things  to 
say  unto  you,  but  ye  cannot  bear  them  now." 
(John  i6:  12.)  The  soul-winner  must 
recognize  this  fact,  and  seek  rightly  to  divide 
the  word  of  truth.  The  Christian  needs  a 
different  kind  and  application  of  truth  from 
that  needed  by  the  sinner  or  backslider,  and 
the    sanctified    man    can    receive   the    strong 


110  THE  soul-winner's   SECRET. 

meat  of  God's  Word,  while  babes  in  Qirist 
must  be  fed  on  milk.  (i  Cor.  3:  i,  2; 
Heb.  5:  12:  14.) 

With  the  sinner,  the  principal  attack 
should  be  made  on  the  conscience  and  the 
will;  he  may  be  moral,  and  more  or  less 
amiable  in  his  family  and  social  relations, 
and  honorable  among  his  business  associates, 
but  be  sure  that  under  this  is  secret  selfishness 
and  heart  sin.  He  seeks  his  own  way,  is 
disobedient  to  the  light,  careless  to  the  dying- 
love  of  Jesus.  And  in  reality,  if  not  in 
profession,  he  is  an  enemy  to  God,  and  must 
be  convinced  of  these  facts,  and  faithfully 
and  lovingly  and  firmly  warned  of  his  utter 
ruin  if  he  does  not  repent.  Repentance, 
deep,  thorough  and  heartfelt,  that  leads  to 
a  confession  and  an  utter,  eternal  renuncia- 
tion of  all  sin  and  a  complete  amendment 
of  life  and  a  making  right  as  far  as  possible 
of  all  past  wrong,  must  be  presented  as  tTie 
"straight  gate"  through  which  alone  he 
can  enter  the  highway  of  Heaven.  We 
must  insist  on  an  immediate  and  uncondi- 
tional surrender  to  all  the  light  God 
gives,  and  offer  him  mercy  and  tender 
love  through  Jesus  Christ  only  if  he 
yields. 


SAVING  TRUTH.  Ill 

The  motives  that  lead  to  repentance  are 
drawn  from  eternity,  and  there  is  a  whole 
armory  of  truth  with  which  the  sinner  can 
and  must  be  bombarded  to  bring  him  to 
terms,  such  as  the  certainty  that  what  he 
sows  he  shall  reap;  that  his  sins  will  surely 
find  him  out;  that  death  will  speedily  over- 
take him;  and  that  if,  refusing  mercy,  he 
presumes  on  the  goodness  of  God,  and  con- 
tinues in  selfishness  and  sin.  Hell  shall  be 
his  portion  forever;  while  a  life  of  peace 
and  joy  here,  a  happy  death-bed,  and  eternal 
glory  can  be  offered  to  him  as  the  alternative, 
on  condition  of  obedient  faith. 

About  the  same  kind  of  truth  is  necessary 
for  the  backslider,  except  that  the  propor- 
tions may  have  to  be  varied.  If  he  is 
stubborn,  thunder  the  law  at  him  until  he 
hoists  the  white  flag  and  sues  for  mercy. 
If  he  is  sorry  he  has  backslidden,  but  fears 
it  is  vain  to  try  again,  then  he  should  be 
encouraged  in  every  possible  way  to  look 
up  and  trust,  and  the  infinite  love  and  pity 
of  God  revealed  in  Jesus  should  be  pressed 
upon  his  attention,  and  he  should  be  urged 
to  cast  himself  upon  God's  mercy. 

If  these  foundation  truths  of  repentance 
toward    God   and   faith   in   our   Lord   Jesus 


112  THE  soul-winner's   SECRET. 

Christ  are  fully,  affectionately,  and  prayer- 
fully presented,  and  the  sinner  or  backslider 
grasps  and  trusts  them,  he  will  be  converted, 
accepted  by  the  Lord,  and  adopted  into  His 
family.  He  must  now  be  fed  upon  different 
truths  than  those  he  was  fed  on  before.  He 
will  have  a  tender  heart,  and  so  it  will  be 
most  unwise  to  thunder  the  law  at  him, 
though  he  should  be  fully  instructed  as  to 
the  spirituality  of  the  law,  and  that  it  is 
the  law  by  which  God  wishes  us  to  order 
our  conduct,  and  for  which  abundant  grace 
will  be  given.  Nor  should  he  now  be  asked 
to  surrender  since  he  is  saved ;  but  he  should 
be  intelligently  instructed  as  to  the  nature 
and  extent  of  the  consecration  that  is 
expected  from  him,  and  he  should  be  urged, 
and  wisely  and  tenderly  encouraged  to  make 
the  consecration,  presenting  his  body  a  living 
sacrifice  and  yielding  himself  to  God,  "as 
those  that  are  alive  from  the  dead," 

He  should  now  be  instructed  as  to  the 
fact  of  inbred  sin,  which  he  will  soon  find 
stirring  within  him,  and  the  importance  and 
possibility  of  having  this  enemy  cast  out. 
Holiness  should  be  presented  not  so  much 
as  a  stern  demand  of  a  holy  God,  but  rather 
as  his  glorious  privilege  as  a  child  of  God. 


SAVING  TRUTH.  113 

He  should  be  taught  that  it  is  an  experi- 
ence in  which  "perfect  love  casteth  out  all 
fear" — a  rest  of  soul,  in  which  as  our  bones 
and  sinews  are  so  covered  with  flesh  as  to  be 
nnperceived,  so  the  fact  of  duty,  while  still 
remaining  in  force,  is  yet  clothed  upon  and 
hidden  by  love. 

Therefore,  while  the  necessity  of  holiness 
should  be  presented,  and  a  gentle  and  con- 
stant pressure  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the 
will,  yet  the  principal  effort  should  be  made 
to  remove  slavish  fear  by  instructing  the 
understanding,  and  so  drawing  out  the 
confidence  and  affections  that  the  soul  which 
in  conversion  bowed  at  the  feet  of  Jesus 
as  its  Conqueror,  will  now  intelligently  and 
rapturously  yield  to  Him  as  its  Heavenly 
Bridegroom  and  fall  so  desperately  in  love 
with  Him  by  the  incoming  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
that  it  shall  cry  out  with  David,  "I  delight 
to  do  Thv  will,  O  God !"  and  with  Jesus, 
"My  meat  is  to  do  the  will  of  Him  that  sent 
Me." 

If  the  soul-winner  does  not  keep  a  clear, 
warm,  tender  experience  of  full  salvation 
himself,  there  is  a  danger  of  driving  the 
people  to  a  legal  experience  instead  of  lead- 
ing  them    into   a    "perfect-love"    experience. 


114  THE   soul-winner's   SECRET. 

A  legal  experience  is  one  in  which  the  man 
braces  up  to  his  duty  because  the  law 
demands  it,  m  which  he  is  prodded  and 
pushed  up  to  it  by  the  terrors  of  the 
law  rather  than  led  up  to  it  by  the  sweet 
wooings  and  gentle  drawings  of  love. 

In  a  holiness  meeting,  where  there  are 
sinners  and  backsliders,  there  will  be  a  strong 
temptation  to  address  them,  and  as  the  kind 
of  truth  they  need  differs  from  that  needed 
by  converts,  if  this  is  done,  confusion  is 
likely  to  result  and  an  uncertain  experience 
engendered  in  the  hearts  of  Christians.  It 
will  usually  be  found  wisest  to  leave  the 
sinners  and  backsliders  alone  in  this  meeting, 
and  go  straight  for  the  Christians,  to  get 
them  sanctified.  The  Lord  has  been  pleased 
to  give  me  victory  along  this  line,  and 
usually  I  find  also  there  are  some  sinners 
saved  in  my  holiness  meetings. 

Jesus  likens  a  Christian  to  a  sheep.  Our 
duty  then  in  the  holiness  meeting  is  not  to 
club  them  with  the  law,  but  rather  to  feed 
them  with  the  promises  and  assurances  of 
the  Gospel,  and  to  teach  them  to  discern  the 
voice  of  the  good  Shepherd  and  to  remove 
all   fear,  that  they  may  gladly  follow  Him. 

The  staple  diet  of  all  saints  should  be  the 


SAVING  TRUTH.  115 

promises,   seasoned  with  the  commandments 
to  give  them  a  healthy  relish. 

The  promises  draw  us  on  in  the  narrow 
way,  and  the  commandments  hedge  us  in 
that  we  do  not  lose  the  way.  The  promises 
should  be  so  presented  and  the  fullness 
there  is  in  the  Gospel  and  in  Jesus  so  be 
brought  to  view  that  the  souls  of  the  people 
will  run  hard  after  Him  and  not  need  con- 
tinual beatings  to  keep  them  from  breaking 
through  the  hedge  on  to  the  devil's 
territory. 

To  discern  clearly  and  apply  skillfully  the 
truth  needed  by  the  souls  we  are  set  to  save, 
requires  heavenly  wisdom,  and  well  does 
Paul  exhort  Timothy,  "Study  to  show  thyself 
approved  unto  God,  a  workman  that  needeth 
not  to  be  ashamed,  rightly  dividing  the  word 
of  truth,"  But  our  study  will  be  in  vain 
unless  we,  in  lowliness  of  mind,  sit  at  the 
feet  of  Jesus,  seek  wisdom  from  God,  and 
submit  ourselves  in  glad,  prayerful  faith  to 
the  Spirit  of  truth  who  can  and  will  guide 
"into  all  truth."     (John  i6:  13.) 

The  Bible,  which  contains  the  revealed  truth 
necessary  to  salvation,  will  surely  puzzle 
and  mystify  all  who  come  to  it  in  the  big 


116  THE  soul-winner's   SECRET. 

and  swelling  conceit  of  worldly  wisdom, 
but  it  will  open  its  treasures  to  the  plain 
and  humble  men  who  come  to  it  full  of  the 
Spirit  that  moved  holy  men  of  old  to  write 
it. 

O  Lord,  evermore  give  to  Thy  people 
leaders  and  teachers  filled  with  this  Spirit, 
and  clothed  with  this  wisdom! 


KEEPING   THE  FLOCK.  117 


XIII. 


KEEPING  THE  FLOCK. 


The  soul-winner  must  give  much  time  and 
thought  and  prayer  and  effort  to  keep  and 
strengthen  his  converts.  He  ought  to  say 
with  Paul,  "Now  we  live  if  ye  stand  fast," 
and  again  like  Paul  he  should  pray  "night 
and  day  exceedingly  that  we  might  perfect 
that  which  is  lacking  in  your  faith."  (i 
Thess.  3:  8,  10.)  Paul's  ambition  was  not 
simply  to  get  people  converted  and  united 
with  some  local  corps  or  church,  but  to  "pre- 
sent every  man  perfect  in  Christ  Jesus."  (See 
Col.  i:  28.) 

There  is  danger  of  spending  far  more  effort 
and  care  in  getting  people  to  the  penitent- 
form  or  the  inquiry  room,  than  in  keeping 


118  THE  soul-winner's   SECRET. 

them  after  they  are  there.  After  a  baby  is 
born  it  must  be  intelligently  and  constantly 
cared  for,  or  it  will  very  likely  die.  Soul- 
winners  are  not  spiritual  incubators,  but 
fathers  and  mothers  in  Israel,  with  all  the 
measureless  responsibility  not  only  of  saving 
souls,  but  of  keeping  them  after  they  are 
saved. 

The  General  once  said  to  a  few  of  us  on  a 
New  England  train,  "Look  well  to  the  fire 
in  your  own  souls,  for  the  tendency  of  fire  is 
to  go  out." 

And  yet  a  fire  will  never  go  out  if  it  is 
frequently  well  shaken  down  and  fresh  fuel 
is  added.  We  must  look  well  to  the  spark 
of  fire  kindled  in  the  hearts  of  our  converts, 
and  fan  it  gently  but  surely  to  a  flame  and 
help  them  to  care  for  it,  that  it  may  never 
go  out.  The  saddest  thing  in  all  this  mighty 
work  of  soul-saving  is  the  fact  that  in  so 
many  instances  the  fire  goes  out,  the  light 
ceases  to  shine,  the  salt  loses  its  savor,  and 
the  soul  that  was  redeemed  and  washed  with 
"precious  Blood,"  "made  a  partaker  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,"  and  had  "tasted  the  good  word 
of  God  and  the  powers  of  the  world  to  come," 
falls  away  and  returns  to  its  old  sins,  "like 
the  dog  to  his  vomit"  and  the  "sow  that  was 


KEEPING  THE  FLOCK.  119 

washed  to  her  wallowing  in  the  mire."  Judas 
backslid  from  the  very  face  and  ministry  of 
Jesus  Himself;  and  on  another  occasion,  after 
one  of  His  searching  sermons,  we  read  that, 
"from  that  time  many  of  His  disciples  went 
back  and  walked  no  more  with  Him."  (John 
6:  66.) 

Paul  had  to  mourn  the  backsliding  of 
"Demas,  who  loved  this  present  world."  He 
foresaw  and  foretold  the  backsliding  of  some 
of  the  Ephesian  local  officers  (see  Acts  20: 
29-30),  and  after  his  mighty  victories  there, 
which  radiated  to  all  the  surrounding  na- 
tions, he  had  sorrowfully  to  write  to  Tim- 
othy, "This  thou  knowest,  that  all  they  that 
are  in  Asia  be  turned  away  from  me;  of 
whom  are  Phygellus  and  Hermogenes."  "Of- 
fences must  needs  come,"  and  backslidings 
will  follow,  but  the  soul-winner  must  strive 
mightily  against  this,  until,  like  Paul,  he  can 
appeal  to  his  people  and  say,  "I  take  you  to 
record  this  day  that  I  am  pure  from  the  blood 
of  all  men,  for  I  have  not  shunned  to  declare 
unto  you  all  the  counsel  of  God."  (Acts  20: 
26,  27.)  He  must  not  only  save  sinners,  but 
must  keep  his  converts. 

I.  (a).  They  should  be  visited.  Some 
time  ago  I  called  at  a  corps  in   California. 


120  THE  soul-winner's  SEC31ET. 

The  Ensign  met  me  at  the  train,  and  on  the 
way  to  the  quarters  remarked,  "We  got  one 
of  the  worst  drunkards  in  town  saved  last 
night,  and  I  have  seen  him  twice  this  morn- 
ing and  he  is  doing  well."  Of  course  he 
would  do  well  with  such  love  and  care  as 
that !  If  they  cannot  be  visited  at  once,  drop 
them  a  note  and  inclose  a  suitable  tract.  A 
business  man  of  about  fifty  years  of  age,  to- 
gether with  his  wife,  got  saved  in  my  meet- 
ings. I  missed  him  one  night,  then  I  wrote 
him  a  note  telling  him  I  was  praying  for  him, 
etc.  The  next  night  he  was  present  and  told 
how  he  had  been  sorely  tempted,but  that  note 
blessed  him  and  helped  him  to  get  the  victory. 
He  became  a  good  soldier.  In  all  probability 
it  was  that  timely  little  note,  written  in  five 
minutes  and  costing  only  two  cents  to  mail 
that  kept  him  saved. 

(b.)  They  should  be  encouraged  to  read 
their  Bible  daily,  together  with  other  good 
books.  The  Red-Hot  Library  is  well  adapted 
to  young  converts.  When  I  was  in  Boston 
as  Captain  I  went  to  the  Bible  Society  and 
got  them  to  donate  me  forty  little  five-cent 
Testaments,  one  of  which  I  used  to  give  each 
convert,  after  having  marked  a  number  of 
helpful  texts  and  written  his  name  on  the 


KEEPING   THE  FLOCK.  121 

fly-leaf.  Years  afterward  I  was  visiting  a 
corps.  A  young  man  asked  me  if  I  didn't 
remember  him.  I  did  not.  He  pulled  out  a 
little,  well-worn  Testament,  pointed  to  his 
name  and  asked  if  I  knew  that  writing.  I 
did.  Said  he,  "You  gave  me  this  Testament 
years  ago  when  you  were  Captain  in  Boston. 
I  have  kept  it  and  read  it  ever  since,  and  am 
to  be  sworn  in  as  a  soldier  to-night." 

(c.)  They  must  be  taught  to  pray  and 
urged  to  much  regular  and  frequent  secret 
prayer,  until  they  know  its  sweetness  and 
imspeakable  necessity  and  profit. 

(d.)  They  must  be  instructed  to  keep  be- 
lieving and  made  to  see  the  difference  be- 
tween sin  and  temptation. 

(e.)  They  should  be  patiently  encouraged 
to  work  for  others,  especially  for  their  own 
people.  "Andrew  findeth  his  own  brother 
Simon,  and  he  brought  him  to  Jesus,"  the 
Bible  says,  and  our  converts  must  do  like- 
wise. 

(f.)  They  should  be  patiently,  tenderly, 
firmly  led  into  the  experience  of  sanctification 
or  perfect  love.  They  must  not  be  allowed 
to  stop  at  consecration,  but  must  be  pressed 
on  into  a  definite  experience  of  full  salvation. 
It  was  at  this  point  that  President  Mahan 


122  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

says  Finney  failed  during  his  early  ministry. 
He  was  unexcelled  in  getting  sinners  to  a 
complete  renunciation  of  all  sin,  to  a  making 
right  of  all  past  disobedience,  followed  by 
a  complete  consecration  of  all  to  Jesus.  He 
would  start  them  off  for  the  future  with 
vows  to  obey  God  at  all  points,  while  nothing 
was  said  to  them  about  trusting  Jesus  to 
cleanse  their  hearts  at  once  and  fill  them  with 
the  Holy  Spirit.  Our  vows  are  only  ropes 
of  sand,  until  the  Holy  Ghost  has  come  with 
consuming  fire  into  our  hearts,  filling  them 
with  perfect  love.  Mahan  says:  "No  indi- 
vidual, I  believe,  ever  disciplined  believers 
£o  severely  and  with  such  intense  and  tireless 
perseverance,  on  that  principle  as  my  brother 
Finney,  before  he  learned  the  way  of  the 
Lord  more  perfectly.  Appalled  at  the  back- 
slidings  which  followed  his  revivals,  his  most 
earnest  efforts  were  put  forth  to  induce 
among  believers  permanence  in  the  divine 
life.  In  accomplishing  this,  he  knew  of  but 
one  method — absolute  and  fixed  renunciation 
of  sin,  consecration  to  God  and  purpose  of 
obedience."  Not  a  word  about  the  faith  that 
receives. 

"During  his  pastorate   in   New  York,   for 
example,    he   held    for    weeks   in    succession 


KEEPING   THE   FLOCK.  123 

special  meetings  of  his  church  for  perfecting 
this  work,  and  never  were  a  class  of  poor 
creatures  carried  through  a  severer  discipline 
than  were  these.  Years  after,  as  their  pastor 
informed  me,  these  believers  said  they  had 
never  recovered  from  the  internal  weakness 
and  exhaustion  which  had  resulted  from  the 
terrible  discipline  through  which  Mr.  Finney 
had  carried  them. 

"When  he  came  to  Oberlin  and  entered 
upon  the  duties  of  his  professorship,  he  felt 
that  God  had  given  him  a  blessed  opportunity 
to  realize  in  perfection  his  ideal  of  a  ministry 
for  the  churches.  He  had  before  him  a 
mass  of  talented  and  promising  theological 
students,  who  had  implicit  confidence  in  the 
wisdom  of  their  teachers,  and  with  equal 
sincerity  would  follow  their  instructions.  He, 
accordingly,  for  months  in  succession,  gath- 
ered together  these  students  at  stated  seasons, 
instructed  them  most  carefully  in  regard  to 
the  nature  of  the  renunciation  of  sin,  conse- 
cration to  Christ,  and  purpose  of  obedience 
required  of  them.  Then,  under  his  teachings 
and  exhortations,  they  would  renew  their 
renunciations,  consecrations  and  purposes  of 
obedience,  with  all  the  intensity  and  fixedness 
of  resolve  of  which  they  were  capable.     The 


124  THE  soul-winner's   SECRET. 

result  in  every  case  was  one  and  the  same — 
not  the  new  life  of  joy  and  peace  and  power 
that  was  expected,  but  groaning  bondage 
under  the  law  of  sin  and  death.  At  the 
commencement  and  during  the  progress  of 
each  meeting,  their  confessions  and  renuncia- 
tions, their  solemn  consecrations  and  vows 
of  obedience,  were  renewed,  if  possible,  with 
fuller  determination  than  ever  before.  Each 
meeting,  however,  was  closed  with  the  same 
dirge  songs: 

"Look  ho^w  we  groyel  here  below," 
"Return,  O  Holy  Dove,  return," 

and  as  they  went  out,  not  their  songs  of 
joy  and  gladness  were  heard,  but  their 
groans ;  'They  followed,  and  followed  hard 
after  the  law  of  righteousness,  but  did  not 
attain  to  the  law  of  righteousness.  Where- 
fore? Because  they  sought  it  not  by  faith, 
but  as  it  were  by  the  works  of  the  law ;' 
that  is,  by  self-originated  efforts  and  deter- 
minations." (Mahan's  Autobiography,  pages 
246-7.) 

Thank  God,  Finney  learned  better,  and 
soul-winners  should  profit  by  his  example. 
Converts   must   utterly    renounce    sin,    make 


KEEPING   THE  FLOCK.  125 

wrong  things  right  and  consecrate  them- 
selves fully  to  the  Lord  to  obey  Him  in 
all  things  great  and  small;  but  they  must 
understand  fully  that  that  is  only  man's 
part,  and  that  they  must  now  wait  on 
their  Heavenly  Father  and  believe  for 
Him  to  do  His  part,  which  is  to  cleanse 
their  hearts  and  fill  them  with  the  Holy 
Ghost.  They  must  continue  in  glad,  believ- 
ing, wrestling,  never-give-in  prayer,  till 
the  Comforter  comes  into  their  hearts  in  all 
His  cleansing,  sanctifying,  comforting  power. 
They  must  "tarry  in  Jerusalem  till  they  are 
endued  with  power  from  on  high."  They 
must  believe  God  and  receive  the  Holy  Ghost, 
remembering  that  God  is  "more  willing  to 
give  the  Holy  Spirit  to  them  that  ask  Him 
than  parents  are  to  give  good  gifts  unto 
their  children."  That  is  so.  Hallelujah! 
I  have  proved  it. 

n.  The  soul-winner  should  so  organize 
his  work  and  train  his  people  that  he  shall 
have  wide-awake,  willing  workers  and  local 
officers  to  assist  him  in  looking  after  the 
converts. 

It  will  take  patience  and  tact  and  prayer 
to  train  these  workers,  but  it  will  abundantly 
repay  all  eflFort.     "To  every  man  his  work," 


126  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

is  the  inspired  plan.  Moses  had  such  helpers. 
(See  Ex.  i8:  21-26.)  Paul  depended  much 
on  such  help.  (2  Tim.  2:  2;  Titus  i:  5.) 
But  there  must  not  be  too  many  irons  in  the 
fire.  Everything  must  be  subordinated  to 
this  one  end  of  saving  men  and  making  them 
into  valiant  soldiers  of  Jesus  Christ.  Paul 
said:  "This  one  thing  I  do."  Organization 
must  not  be  overdone,  lest  the  workers 
become  like  David  in  Saul's  armor,  lest 
they  become  like  a  mighty  engine  that  has 
not  sufficient  power  to  run  itself.  Let  the 
machinery  be  simple  and  the  divine,  Holy 
Ghost  power  be  abundant.  For  this  there 
must  be  much  prayer  and  patient  waiting 
upon  God.  The  power  is  His  and  can 
be  had  when  persistently,  believingly, 
humbly  and  boldly  applied  for.  Glory  to 
God! 

HI.  Love  must  abound.  In  England, 
France,  Germany  and  other  European 
countries,  the  populations  are  practically 
homogeneous — that  is,  in  England  they  are 
all  English;  in  France,  French,  etc.;  but  in 
this  country  we  are  mixed  people,  with 
different  ideals,  tastes,  maxims,  prejudices, 
hereditary  instincts,  influences  and  religious 
training,  which  make  it  more  difficult  for  us 


KEEPING   THE  FLOCK.  127 

to  combine  for  religious  purposes  and  work 
harmoniously  together. 

In  order  to  do  this  we  must  be  melted  or 
heated  by  a  great  common  passion,  and 
welded  together  like  two  pieces  of  iron, 
until  there  is  no  longer  "Greek  or  Jew," 
Englishman  or  Irishman,  French  or  German, 
American  or  European,  "but  Christ  is  all  and 
in  all."  Love  is  the  only  thing  that  will  do 
this,  and  love  will  do  it.  I  heard  one  of 
our  officers  say:  "I  got  saved  in  an  Army 
meeting  where  I  could  not  understand  a 
word  spoken.  But  the  love  of  Jesus  was 
there  and  I  understood  that." 

In  cold  weather  men  of  all  nations  will 
gather  around  a  stove  in  which  there  is  a 
fire,  and  so  they  will  gather  around  officers 
and  soldiers  who  are  full  of  love.  Love  is 
"the  bond  of  perfectness,"  according  to  Paul. 
It  is  that  which  quenches  jealousies,  destroys 
envyings,  bums  up  suspicions,  begets  confi- 
dence and  holds  men  together  with  bonds 
stronger  than  death.  Let  us  have  it  and 
have  it  more  abundantly.  More  love,  more 
love,  more  love !    Without  it  we  are  nothing. 

We  may  be  gifted  in  speech  and  song  as 
an  angel;  we  may  be  shrewd  and  farseeing 
and  able  to  accurately  forecast  the  future; 


128  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

we  may  be  encyclopedic  in  our  knowledge; 
we  may  have  mountain-moving  faith;  we 
may  be  charitably  inclined  and  feed  and 
shelter  many  poor  to  the  extent  of  using 
up  all  our  resources  and  wearing  out  our 
bodies,  but  if  we  have  not  the  gentle,  holy, 
humble,  longsuffering,  self-forgetful,  unfail- 
ing, unsuspicious,  self-sacrificing,  generous, 
lowly  love  of  Jesus,  we  are  nothing — we  are 
as  sounding  brass  and  tinkling  cymbals, 
(i   Cor.   13:   1-8.) 

It  was  this  love  that  enabled  Paul  to 
write:  "I  will  not  be  burdensome  to  you, 
for  I  seek  not  yours,  but  you  .  .  .  And  I  will 
very  gladly  spend  and  be  spent  for  you; 
though  the  more  abundantly  I  love  you,  the 
less  I  be  loved."  (2  Cor.  12:  14  and  15.) 
And  here  is  another  bit  of  Paul's  auto- 
biography that  ought  to  be  put  on  the  wall 
of  every  minister's  study  and  every  officer's 
quarters  throughout  the  land,  every  word 
of  which  is  freighted  with  the  love  that 
filled  his  great  heart:  "For  yourselves, 
brethren,  know  our  entrance  in  unto  you, 
that  it  was  not  in  vain ;  but  even  after  we 
had  been  shamefully  entreated  at  Philippi 
we  were  bold  in  our  God  to  speak  unto  you 
the    Gospel   of   God   with   much   contention. 


KEEPING   THE  FLOCK.  129 

For  our  exhortation  was  not  of  deceit,  nor 
of  uncleanness,  nor  in  guile ;  but  as  we  were 
allowed  of  God  to  be  put  in  trust  with  the 
Gospel,  even  so  we  speak;  not  as  pleasing 
men,  but  God,  which  trieth  our  hearts.  For 
neither  at  any  time  used  we  flattering  words, 
as  ye  know,  nor  a  cloak  of  covetousness ; 
God  is  witness ;  nor  of  men  sought  we  glory, 
neither  of  you  nor  yet  of  others,  when  we 
might  have  been  burdensome,  as  the  apostles 
of  Christ.  But  we  were  gentle  among  you, 
even  as  a  nurse  cherisheth  her  children : 
so  being  affectionately  desirous  of  you,  we 
were  willing  to  have  imparted  unto  you,  not 
the  Gospel  of  God  only,  but  also  our  own 
souls,  because  ye  were  dear  unto  us.  For 
ye  remember,  brethren,  our  labor  and  travail ; 
for  laboring  night  and  day,  because  we  would 
not  be  chargeable  unto  any  of  you,  we 
preached  unto  you  the  Gospel  of  God.  Ye 
are  witnesses,  and  God  also,  how  holily  and 
justly  and  unblamably  we  behaved  ourselves 
among  you  that  believe;  as  ye  know  how 
we  exhorted  and  comforted,  and  charged 
every  one  of  you,  as  a  father  doth  his 
children,  that  ye  would  walk  worthy  of  God, 
who  hath  called  you  unto  His  Kingdom  and 
glory."     (i  Thess.  2:  1-12.) 

K 


130  THE  soul-winner's  SECRET. 

And  again  he  says :  "I  kept  back  noth- 
ing that  was  profitable  unto  you,  but 
have  showed  you  and  have  taught  you  pub- 
licly, and  from  house  to  house,  ...  I  am 
pure  trom  the  blood  of  all  men.  For  I  have 
not  shunned  to  declare  unto  you  all  the 
counsel  of  God  .  .  .  Therefore  watch,  and 
remember,  that  by  the  space  of  three  years 
I  ceased  not  to  warn  everyone  night  and  day 
with  tears."     (Acts  20:  20,  26,  2^,  31,) 

This  is  the  love  that  will  build  up  our 
converts,  and  nothing  else  will.  We  must 
have  love,  love,  love!  We  must  look  for 
love,  pray  for  love,  believe  for  love.  We 
must  exercise  love  ourselves,  and  inspire 
all  our  people  to  love,  and  then  they  will 
watch  over  one  another,  and  pray  and  weep 
for  each  other,  and  bless  one  another,  and 
be  united  as  one  man,  and  the  gates  of  Hell 
cannot  prevail  against  us. 

Oh,  that  we  all  as  soul-winners  may  have 
melting  baptisms  of  holy  love  that  shall  make 
us,  like  Jesus,  patient,  gentle,  faithful, 
courageous,  tireless,  undismayed  and  utterly 
unselfish.  Then  shall  our  spiritual  children 
abound  and  be  strong,  and  The  Army  of 
the     Lord      shall      become      more     terrible 


KEEPING  THE   FLOCK.  131 

to    evil    doers    than    "an    army    with    ban- 
ners." 

If  we  haven't  this  love,  God  will  give  it 
to  us  in  answer  to  persistent,  believing  prayer. 
He  surely  will.     Glory  to  God ! 


132  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 


XIV. 


THE    SOUL-WINNER   AND    THE    CHILDREN. 

Not  only  did  Jesus  say,  "Suffer  the  little 
children  to  come  unto  Me,  and  forbid  them 
not,"  but  He  gave  to  Peter  the  positive 
command,  "Feed  My  lambs,"  and  in  that 
command  laid  a  responsibility  upon  soul- 
winners  for  the  children,  for  "of  such  is  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven,"  and  in  no  other  field 
and  among  no  other  class  can  they  work 
with  such  immediate  success,  and  such  far- 
reaching  results. 

Children  are  not  hard  to  reach  with  the 
Gospel,  if  the  soul-winner  will  but  be  simple 
and  use  common  sense  in  dealing  with  them. 
They  are  not  hardened  in  sin,  their  con- 
sciences are  tender  and  their  hearts  open, 
their  minds  receptive,  their  wills  pliable,  their 


SOUL-WINNER    AND    CHILDREN.  133 

faith  simple;  they  are  keenly  alive  to  the 
love  of  Jesus,  the  glories  of  Heaven,  the 
terrors  of  Hell,  and  the  omnipresence  of 
God.  They  learn  readily  to  pray  in  faith 
about  everything,  and  to  cast  all  their  care 
upon  God.  No  eyes  are  so  keen  as  theirs 
to  see  the  light  that  lighteneth  every  man, 
and  no  hands  are  so  ready  to  do  His  bid- 
ding, and  no  feet  so  ready  to  run  in  His 
ways. 

And  yet  effort  must  be  put  forth  ceaselessly 
to  win  them  and  to  keep  themi  after  they  are 
won,  for  the  corruption  of  their  own  natures 
and  the  evil  example  and  teaching  of  a 
hostile  world  and  the  wiles  of  the  vigilant 
and  tireless  enemy  of  all  souls  will  soon 
blind  their  eyes  and  harden  their  hearts 
and  utterly  ruin  them,  if  they  are  not  soon 
won  to  Jesus  and  filled  with  His  love.  You 
may  feel  yourself  unfitted  for  this  task,  but 
it  is  your  business  to  fit  yourself  for  it.  if 
God  has  called  you  to  be  a  worker  for  souls. 
The  first  thing  necessary  is  to  believe  in  the 
possibility  of  the  conversion  of  the  children; 
and  certainly  the  plain  teachings  of  Jesus, 
the  examples  found  in  the  Bible,  and  the 
multitude  of  examples  that  anyone  can  see 
with    his    own    eyes   if   he    will    open    them 


134  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

and  look,  ought  to  convince  the  most 
skeptical  of  this  possibility. 

Almost  from  babyhood  the  Lord  spoke 
to  Samuel,  and  filled  his  heart  and  mind 
with  wisdom,  so  that  none  of  his  words 
fell  to  the  ground.  ( i  Sam.  2 :  26,  and  3 : 
1-21.)  From  a  child  God  ordained  Jeremiah 
a  prophet  unto  the  nations,  and  filled  him 
with  His  Spirit  (Jer.  i:  S-io.),  and  if  this 
was  possible  under  the  law,  how  much 
more  gloriously  is  it  possible  under  the 
Gospel? 

Jonathan  Edwards,  in  one  of  his  works, 
tells  of  a  wee  girlie,  only  five  years  of  age, 
going  to  and  from  her  bedroom  looking 
most  sad  and  disconsolate.  Her  mother 
asked  her  what  was  the  matter,  and  the 
little  thing  replied,  "Mamma,  when  I  pray 
God  doesn't  come." 

The  mother  tried  to  comfort  her,  but  her 
little  heart  was  filled  with  hunger  which  only 
the  Comforter  Himself  could  satisfy,  and 
she  still  continued  to  go  disconsolately  to 
her  bedroom.  But  one  glad  day  she  ran 
from  her  room,  leaped  into  her  mother's 
bosom,  threw  her  arms  around  her  neck 
and  cried,  "O  mamma,  mamma,  when  I  pray 
now.  God  comes!" 


SOUL-WINNER   AND   CHILDREN.  135 

And  up  through  the  years  of  her  child- 
hood and  youth  and  womanhood  she  lived 
such  a  life  of  Christian  humility  and  grace 
and  truth  as  was  the  wonder  of  all  who 
knew  her. 

Secondly,  since  they  can  be  won,  you  must 
make  up  your  mind  that  you  will  win  them ; 
you  must  put  from  your  mind  forever  the 
thought  that  "anything  will  do  for  the 
children."  It  will  require  much  prayer,  and 
patience,  and  love,  and  tact,  and  divine 
wisdom  to  win  them  to  the  Saviour,  and  to 
keep  them  after  they  are  won.  They  must 
have  "line  upon  line,  precept  upon  precept." 
If  one  teaching  of  the  lesson  is  not  sufficient 
then  they  must  be  taught  it  again  and  yet 
again.  "Why  do  you  tell  Charles  the  same 
thing  twenty  times  over?"  asked  the  father 
of  John  and  Charles  Wesley  of  the  mother. 
"Because  nineteen  times  won't  do,"  replied 
the  wise  and  particular  mother, 

"Hear,  O  Israel,"  said  the  Lord;  "the 
Lord  is  one  God,  and  thou  shalt  love  the 
Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart  and  with 
all  thy  soul  and  with  all  thy  mind,  and  these 
words  which  I  command  you  this  day  shall 
be  in  thine  heart,  and  thou  shalt  teach  them 
diligently  unto  thy  children,  and  thou  shalt 


136  THE  soul-winner's   SECRET, 

talk  of  them  when  thou  sittest  in  thy  house 
and  when  thou  walkest  by  the  way  and  when 
thou  liest  down  and  when  thou  risest  up, 
and  thou  shalt  bind  them  for  a  sign  upon 
thy  hand  and  they  shall  be  for  frontlets 
between  thy  eyes,  and  thou  shalt  write  them 
on  the  posts  of  thine  house,  and  upon  thy 
gates."  This  was  the  way  that  the  children 
of  the  old  Israelites  were  to  be  taught, 
and  this  must  be  the  standard  the  soul- 
winner  sets  for  himself  and  for  his  people 
to-day. 

The  children  should  be  noticed;  and  I 
am  increasingly  convinced  that  in  every 
meeting  where  there  are  children  present 
something  should  be  said  that  is  suitable 
to  them,  and  the  invitation  to  come  to  Jesus 
should  include  them. 

When  they  do  come,  they  should  be  dealt 
with  most  thoroughly,  their  little  hearts 
should  be  probed,  their  sins  searched  out 
and  thorough  repentance  required.  Their 
fears  must  be  tenderly  removed  by  showing 
them  the  fullness  of  God's  love,  and  the 
certainty  of  salvation  when  they  give  up 
sin.  Their  thought  should  be  turned  to 
Jesus  and  their  faith  fixed  on  Him  and 
grounded  in  His  Word. 


SOUL-WINNER  AND   CHILDREN.  137 

Give  them  His  sure  promises,  such  as,  "If 
we  confess  our  sins  He  is  faithful  and  just 
to  forgive  us  our  sins,  and  to '  cleanse  us 
from  all  unrighteousness."  ' 

Above  all  you  must  be  simple  and  make 
things  very  plain  for  the  children.  They  do 
not  know  the  meaning  of  many  big  words 
that  you  understand  quite  well,  therefore  you 
must  take  pains  to  make  yourself  understood. 

The  other  day  I  was  talking  to  some  juniors, 
and  I  gave  them  this  text,  "Remember  now 
thy  Creator  in  the  days  of  thy  youth,"  I 
asked  them  if  they  knew  what  the  word 
"Creator"  meant,  and  none  of  them  knew, 
neither  did  they  know  what  the  word  "youth" 
meant.  So  I  had  to  explain  that  the  text 
meant  that  they  were  to  remember  and  think 
about  God  and  love  Him  while  they  were 
little  boys  and  girls. 

Again  I  gave  them  the  text,  "Behold  how 
pleasant  it  is  for  brethren  to  dwell  together  in 
unity."  But  none  of  them  knew  the  meaning 
of  the  word  "unity." 

One  said  that  it  meant  home,  and  that  was 
a  pretty  good  guess,  but  I  had  to  explain  that 
the  text  meant  that  it  was  good  and  pleasant 
for  little  brothers  and  sisters,  and  big  ones, 
too,  to  live  together  in  peace,  without  quar- 


138  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

reling  and  fighting,  and  they  understood  that. 

The  following  story  from  a  Boston  paper 
will  illustrate  my  meaning  further:  "The 
songs  which  were  sung  for  Dewey  by  the 
school  children  included  so  many  references 
to  Columbia  that  a  teacher  in  a  certain  South 
End  public  school  thought  that  she  would 
find  out  how  many  of  her  pupils  understood 
what  the  word  Columbia  meant.  She  put 
the  question  and  received  these  answers 
among  others : 

"A  ship." 

"A  man  that  came  over  from  Spain  and 
discovered  our  country." 

"A  bisikkel." 

"A  captain." 

Bi;t  not  one  pupil  in  the  class  (seventh 
grade)  knew  that  Columbia  was  another 
name  for  United  States  of  America. 

You  will  have  to  put  on  your  thinking 
caps,  and  set  your  brains  to  work  to  make 
your  teaching  simple  for  the  children;  but 
love  will  help  you. 

Some  time  ago  I  heard  a  Junior  worker 
singing  lustily  to  a  lot  of  juniors: 


Get  your  baggage  on  the  deck 
And  don't  forget  to  get  your  check, 


SOUL-WINNER  AND   CHILDREN.  139 

etc.,  but  he  didn't  explain  that  it  simply- 
meant  that  they  were  to  give  themselves  to 
Jesus,  and  throw  away  their  sins,  and  be 
sure  and  get  His  love  in  their  hearts.  So 
when  he  got  through  I  felt  sure  that  there 
was  nothing  but  a  confused  rattle  of  "bag- 
gage, deck,  check,  quick,"  in  the  ears  of  the 
juniors,  with  no  useful  or  saving  idea  in 
their  little  heads  and  hearts. 

If  you  will  pray  to  God  for  wisdom  and 
love  He  will  help  you  to  make  the  deepest 
spiritual  truths  plain  to  the  children. 

Through  simplifying  my  talks  God  gives 
me  the  joy  of  seeing  many  juniors  seeking 
Him  for  salvation,  and  occasionally  I  have 
seen  some  gloriously  sanctified. 

Some  time  ago,  in  one  of  my  Sunday  after- 
noon meetings,  I  had  a  penitent-form  full 
of  juniors,  with  each  of  whom  I  dealt  person- 
ally.    I  asked  one  little  fellow: 

"What  are  you  here  for,  darling?" 

"To  get  saved,"  said  he. 

"Get  saved  from  what?"  I  inquired. 

"From    my    sins." 

"And  what  are  your  sins?" 

"I  fight,"  and  then  he  broke  down  and 
cried. 


140  THE  soul-winner's   SECRET. 

"And  what  are  you  here  for?"  I  asked  a 
little  girl. 

She,  too,  was  there  to  get  saved,  and  I 
asked  what  her  sins  were.  She  hesitated  a 
little  and  then  said :  "I'm  cruel  to  my  sister 
and  brother;"  and  then  she  broke  down  and 
cried. 

Another  little  girl  swore,  and  another  dis- 
obeyed her  mother.  One  little  boy  told  lies, 
another  smoked  cigarettes,  and  another  was 
disobedient  to  his  teacher;  and  so  they  told 
of  their  sins  and  broke  down  and  wept  and 
prayed,  and  asked  God  to  forgive  them  and 
make  them  good,  and  I  have  hope  that  most 
of  them   got  saved. 

In  one  of  my  meetings  a  little  girl  of  ten 
got  saved  and  sanctified  and  lived  a  holy 
life  for  about  three  years  and  then  died 
happy,  sending  me  word  that  the  Lord  still 
sanctified  her  and  kept  her  to  the  end. 

But  after  we  have  done  all,  we  must  re- 
member that  they  are  only  lambs,  and  not 
sheep ;  that  they  are  growing  children,  not 
grown  men  and  women ;  that  they  are  in  the 
formative  state,  tender  and  inexperienced ; 
that  life  and  the  world  are  full  of  interest 
to  them;  that  they  have  a  personality  and 
individuality  of  their  own,  and  are  not  always 


SOUL-WINNER  AND   CHILDREN.  141 

willing  to  take  the  simple  word  of  their 
elders,  nor  to  yield  to  admonition  and  in- 
struction, but  desire  to  prove  their  own 
powers,  and  to  taste  and  see  all  things  for 
themselves.  Therefore  it  will  be  necessary 
not  only  to  talk  much  to  them  about  God, 
but  to  talk  even  more  to  God  about  them, 
and  to  depend  upon  the  mighty,  constant 
co-operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  securing 
their  salvation,  and  keeping  them  in  the 
grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

We  must  show  all  diligence  in  our  efforts 
until,  if  possible,  we  can  at  least  say  with 
Paul  to  Timothy,  that  "from  a  child  thou 
hast  known  the  Holy  Scriptures,  which  are 
able  to  make  thee  wise  unto  salvation  through 
faith  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus." 


142  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 


XV. 

THE      SOUL- winner's      COMMISSION      TO      THE 
CHILDREN. 

"Lovest   thou   Met     Feed   My   lambs." 

Rough  and  ready  Peter,  that  horny-handed 
old  fisherman,  thought  he  was  cut  out  for 
and  best  fitted  to  be  a  prime  minister  or 
secretary  of  state,  a  bishop,  a  colonel,  or  a 
commander,  and  it  seems  had  several  dis- 
putes with  the  other  disciples  as  to  whether 
he  should  not  be  the  greatest  among  them 
(Mark  9:  34;  Luke  9:  46).  How  big  must 
have  been  his  surprise  then  when  he  got  his 
commission  from  Jesus  as  a  Junior  worker, 
and  received  orders  to  feed  the  lambs !  What 
a  mighty  argument  he  could  have  made  to 
prove  that  he  was  not  fitted  for  work  with 
the  children!     To  be   sure  he  had  at  least 


soul-winner's  commission.  14S 

one  boy  of  his  own  (see  i  Peter  5;  13),  and 
maybe  several  others,  but  then,  he  was  a 
fisherman,  and  the  care  of  the  children  was 
left  to  his  wife.  In  fact,  he  had  no  fitness 
either  by  nature  or  training,  for  that  kind  of 
work;  all  his  associates  had  been  with  the 
big,  burly  men  of  the  sea,  and  what  did  he 
know  about  talking  to  children?  All  his 
thoughts  and  desires  and  ambitions  ran  in 
another  direction,  and  was  he  not  too  old 
.ind  set  in  his  ways  to  change  now? 

But  when  Jesus,  with  infinite  knowledge 
and  wisdom  and  tenderness,  looked  straight 
into  his  eyes  and  asked  him  that  searching 
question,  "Lovest  thou  Me  more  than  these?" 
and  then  in  reply  to  his  answer,  "Yea,  Lord,. 
Thou  knowest  that  I  love  Thee,"  said,. 
"Feed  My  lambs,"  what  could  Peter  say? 
So  Peter  was  first  commissioned  to  be  a 
Junior  worker. 

"But,"  you  say,  "did  not  Jesus  mean  young 
converts,  when  He  said,  *My  lambs'?  and 
might  they  not  be  men  and  women  who  were 
only  newly  converted?"  True,  it  is  probable 
that  Jesus  meant  new  converts,  but  new  con- 
verts include  children,  for  the  children  are 
often  converted,  too,  and  did  not  Jesus  say, 
"Of  such  is  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven"?     So 


144  THE  soul-winner's  SECRET. 

any  way  we  may  explain  the  text,  we  cannot 
escape  the  fact  that  Peter  was  commanded 
to  work  with  and  for  the  children.  And  if 
Peter,  why  not  you  and  I,  my  comrade 
officers?  Are  we  not  commanded  to  look 
well  to  the  flock  over  which  the  Holy  Ghost 
hath  made  us  overseers?  (Acts  20:  28)  and 
was  there  ever  a  flock  in  which  there  were 
no  lambs?  If  so  it  was  a  flock  doomed  to 
speedy  extinction. 

Are  we  not  commanded  to  do  with  our 
might  what  our  hands  find  to  do?  And  do 
we  not  find  multitudes  of  little  ones  unshep- 
herded,  unloved,  untaught,  and  for  whose 
tender  little  souls  no  man  cares,  nor  prays, 
nor  weeps  before  the  Lord,  and  whose  little 
hands  are  stretched  out  towards  us,  saying, 
"Come,  and  help  us"?  Shall  we  wait  till 
they  are  old  in  sin  and  hardened  in  wicked- 
ness and  fixed  in  unholy  habits  and  bond- 
slaves of  the  devil  before  we  work  and  plan 
and  pray  for  them  and  seek  their  salvation? 
Is  it  possible  that  we  have  a  call  to  the 
work  of  saving  souls  and  yet  have  no  com- 
mission for  the  children?  No,  no,  no!  To 
every  worker  who  says  to  Jesus,  "Lord,  Thou 
knowest  that  I  love  Thee,"  in  answer  to 
His  question,  "Lowest  thou  Me?"  Jesus  says, 


soul-winner's  commission.  145 

"Feed  My  lambs."  The  worker  may  feel  that 
he  has  no  fitness,  no  tact,  no  skill,  no  gifts 
for  that  kind  of  work,  but  the  commission 
lays  upon  him  the  responsibility  to  study  and 
think  and  watch  and  pray  and  love  and  be- 
lieve and  work  himself  into  fitness ;  and  by 
beginning  with  just  such  poor,  feeble,  un- 
trained gifts  as  he  has,  and  making  the  most 
of  every  opportunity,  and  by  being  diligent 
and  faithful,  by  courage  and  pluck  and  good 
cheer  and  faith,  and  by  seeking  God's  bless- 
ing day  by  day,  this  fitness  can  surely  be 
attained. 

The  poor,  thick-headed  numb-skull  who 
never  dreamed  he  had  any  music  in  his  soul 
or  in  his  fingers  till  he  got  converted  at 
The  Salvation  Army  penitent-form,  but  who 
sets  himself  to  it  and  patiently  thrums  away 
at  a  guitar  or  blows  at  a  cornet  for  six 
months  or  a  year  until  he  can  play  fairly  well, 
can  with  equal  diligence  and  patience  and 
determination  and  attention,  learn  to  interest 
and  bless  and  help  the  children;  but  he 
must  put  his  heart  and  soul  into  it. 

I  read  some  time  since  of  a  minister  who 
was  sure  he  was  called  and  fitted  only  to 
preach  big  sermons  to  big  folks,  but  one  day 
he  heard  a  brother  minister  talk  so  instruct- 


146  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

ively  and  entertainingly  to  the  children  that 
he  determined  to  acquire  that  gift,  and  by 
thought  and  prayer  and  practice  he,  too,  be- 
came a  powerful  children's  worker. 

Go  thou,  my  brother,  my  sister,  and  do 
likewise. 

Do  you  ask,  "How  can  I  become  such  a 
worker?" 

1.  Make  up  your  mind  that  you  ought  to 
do  so,  and  that  by  God's  grace  you  will ; 
then,  make  it  a  matter  of  daily  prayer  and 
thought  and  meditation.  Above  all,  seek 
help  from  God. 

2.  Get  all  the  help  you  can  from  others. 
Study  their  methods,  but  don't  become  a 
vain  imitator  of  anyone.    Be  yourself. 

3.  Study  the  best  books  you  can  find  on 
the  subject.  There  are  many  bright  books 
that  will  greatly  help  you  which  you  can  get 
at  Headquarters. 

4.  Try  to  put  yourself  in  the  place  of  the 
child,  and  ask  what  would  interest  you. 
Make  things  very  plain  and  simple.  Watch 
for  illustrations  that  the  children  can  under- 
stand, and  that  will  interest  them. 

5.  But  above  all  have  a  heart  full  of  ten- 
der love  and  sympathy  for  the  little  ones, 
and  you  will  be  interesting  and  helpful   to 


soul-winner's  commission.  147 

them  whether  you  can  talk  much  or  not. 
They  will  feel  your  love  and  respond  to  it, 
and  so  you  can  point  them  to  Jesus  and  help 
them  in  their  first  timid  steps  toward  Heaven. 
In  the  words  of  Paul,  "Meditate  on  these 
things ;  give  thyself  wholly  to  them,  that 
thy  progress  may  be  manifest  unto  all."  (i 
Tim.  4:  15,  R.  V.) 


148  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 


XVI. 


DEAL     GENTLY, 

Recently  in  my  regular  Bible  reading  I 
came  to  that  tender  appeal  of  King  David 
to  his  generals  as  they  were  going  forth  to 
fight  with  Absalom:  "Deal  gently  for  my 
sake  with  the  young  man,  even  with  Ab- 
salom:" (2  Sam.  18:  5),  and  my  heart  was 
touched  with  its  likeness  to  Jesus. 

Absalom  was  in  rebellion  against  David 
the  king,  his  father,  and  had  driven  him 
forth  from  his  throne,  had  outraged  his 
father's  marital  ties,  had  sacrificed  filial  af- 
fection and  trampled  upon  filial  and  civic 
duty,  and  was  now  seeking  his  father's  life. 
But  David  knew  him  only  as  his  wayward 
boy,  loved  him  still,  and  commanded  his 
warriors  to  deal  gently  with  him  in  the  com- 


DEAL    GENTLY.  149 

ing  battle.  He  would  have  the  rebellion 
crushed,  but  the  rebel  saved ;  the  sin  de- 
stroyed, but  the  sinner  rescued. 

How  like  Jesus  that  is!  Is  not  that  the 
way  Jesus  feels  toward  the  most  desperate 
backslider,  the  most  careless  sinner?  Does 
not  His  heart  yearn  over  them  with  unutter- 
able tenderness?  And  is  not  this  written  for 
our  admonition?  Does  He  not  say  to  us, 
"Deal  gently  for  My  sake"? 

The  battle  went  against  Absalom  that  day, 
and  hard-hearted,  wilful,  stubborn,  old  Joab 
slew  him  deliberately  in  spite  of  the  king's 
wish.  And  so  it  often  is  to-day.  Joab's 
tribe  has  increased,  and  while  Jesus  would 
have  the  backslider  and  sinner  dealt  with 
gently,  Joab  rises  up  and  thrusts  him  through 
with  reproaches  and  bitter  words  and  sharp 
looks,  slays  him  utterly,  and  the  heart  of 
Jesus  is  broken  afresh,  as  was  the  heart  of 
David.  The  elder  brother,  with  his  ungener- 
ous jealousy  and  cruel  words  and  hardness 
of  heart,  as  surely  grieved  the  loving  old 
father  as  did  the  prodigal  with  his  riotous 
living. 

There  are  many  reasons  why  we  should 
deal   gently. 


ISO  THE  soul-winner's   SECRET. 

1.  That  we  may  be  like  Jesus.  When 
Peter  denied  Jesus  and  cursed  and  swore, 
Jesus  loved  him  still,  and  turned  and  gave 
him  a  tender  look  that  broke  his  heart,  and 
he  went  out  and  wept  bitterly.  And  after 
the  resurrection  Jesus  did  not  rebuke  and 
reproach  Peter,  but  tenderly  asked  him, 
"Lovest  thou  Me?"  and  then  commissioned 
him  to  feed  His  lambs  and  sheep. 

Should  we,  then,  who  at  our  best  are  only 
"sinners  saved  by  grace,"  despise  the  example 
of  our  Lord  and  deal  roughly  with  His 
sheep  that  have  gone  astray?  Since  He  has 
freely  forgiven  us  our  ten  thousand  talents, 
shall  we  not  forgive  our  brother  a  hundred 
pence?    (Matt.  i8:  23-35.) 

2.  We  should  deal  gently  with  them  lest 
we  ourselves  grieve  the  Spirit  and  become 
backsliders.  Paul  wrote  to  the  brethren  in 
Galatia,  saying,  "Brethren,  if  a  man  be  over- 
taken in  a  fault,  ye  which  are  spiritual  restore 
such  an  one  in  the  spirit  of  meekness,  con- 
sidering thyself,  lest  thou  also  be  tempted." 
(Gal.  6:  i.)  I  have  noticed  that  when 
professing  Christians  bear  hard  upon  back- 
sliders it  is  usually  only  a  question  of  time 
when  they  themselves  shall  backslide.  In 
fact,  it  is  pretty  certain  that  they  are  already 


DEAL    GENTLY.  151 

backsliders  in  heart.  In  the  very  act  of 
killing  the  rebellious  Absalom  Joab  himself 
rebelled  against  the  expressed  wish  and 
command  of  his  king,  though  he  did  it  under 
the  cloak  of  loyalty. 

And  so  men  to-day  who  are  severe  in  their 
dealings  with  sinners  and  backsliders  under 
the  cloak  of  zeal  for  righteousness  and  loyalty 
to  truth  are  themselves  rebelling  against  the 
example  and  spirit  of  Jesus,  and  unless  they 
repent,  the  world  shall  surely  soon  witness 
their  fall. 

I  have  in  mind  now  two  prominent  re- 
ligious leaders  who  were  unsparing  in  their 
criticisms  and  judgment  against  a  notorious 
backslider  until  their  spirit  became  as  surely 
un-Christlike  as  was  his  in  spite  of  their 
loud  professions  and  fair  outward  appear- 
ance. At  last  one  of  them  fell  through  gross 
immorality  and  the  other  was  caught  in  the 
same  snare,  and  practically  followed  in  the 
footsteps  of  the  man  he  had  so  fiercely  con- 
demned. "Let  him  that  thinketh  he  standeth 
take  heed"  to  his  way  and  spirit  in  dealing 
with  those  who  are  away  from  Jesus,  "lest  he 
fall."  We  can  only  save  ourselves  as  we 
keep  the  sweet  spirit  that  impels  us  to  "deal 
gently"  for  Jesus'  sake. 


152  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

3.  We  should  deal  gently  that  we  may 
save  the  backslider.  Jesus  loves  him  still, 
is  married  to  him,  seeks  him  continually  and 
waits  to  forgive  him  and  cleanse  him  and  re- 
store to  him  the  joy  of  salvation  the  moment 
he  returns,  and  we  must  not  hinder,  but  help. 
But  we  shall  not  do  so  unless  we  deal  gently. 
Harsh  dealing  would  not  win  us,  nor  will  it 
win  him. 

Paul  wrote  to  Timothy,  "The  servant  of 
the  Lord  must  not  strive,  but  be  gentle  to- 
ward all  men,  apt  to  teach,  patient;  in  meek- 
ness instructing  those  that  oppose  them- 
selves, if  God  peradventure  will  give  them 
repentance  to  the  acknowledging  of  the 
truth;  and  that  they  may  recover  themselves 
out  of  the  snare  of  the  devil."  (2  Tim.  2: 
24-26.)  But  this  gentleness  is  not  inconsist- 
ent with  great  firmness  and  unswerving 
loyalty  to  the  truth.  In  fact  it  is  only  when 
it  is  combined  with  these  sturdy  virtues  that 
it  commends  itself  to  the  judgment  and  con- 
science of  the  wrongdoer,  and  is  likely  to 
really  win  him  from-  the  error  of  his 
ways. 

Firmness  of  manner  may  unite  with  great 
gentleness  of  spirit.  I  may  be  as  tender  in 
spirit  in  warning  and  commanding  my  child 


DEAL    GENTLY.  153 

to  beware  of  the  fire,  as  I  am  in  soothing 
him  after  he  is  burned. 

While  harshness  and  severity  will  only 
harden  the  wanderer  from  God  on  the  one 
hand,  a  gospel  of  gush  will  fill  him  with 
indifference  or  contempt  on  the  other.  The 
soul-winner,  then,  must  not  have  the  hard- 
ness and  brittleness  of  glass  or  cast  iron,  nor 
the  malleability  of  wrought  iron  or  putty, 
but  rather  the  strength  and  flexibility  of 
finest  steel  that  will  bend  but  never  break, 
that  will  yield  and  yet  retain  its  own 
form. 

It  is  generally  true  that  holy  mothers  have 
more  influence  with  and  win  more  wilful 
boys  and  girls  than  do  the  fathers,  not  be- 
cause the  mothers  are  more  ready  to  com- 
promise principle  and  sacrifice  truth,  but 
rather  because  while  unwavering  in  their 
fidelity  to  righteousness,  they  mingle  mercy 
with  judgment  and  a  passion  of  gentle,  un- 
failing love  and  tenderest  solicitude  with 
firmness  and  loyalty  to  the  claims  of  God's 
perfect  and  holy  law. 

But  how  shall  one  who  has  not  this  spirit 
of  perfect  gentleness  secure  it?  There  is 
but  one  way.  It  is  a  fruit  of  the  Spirit,  and 
is  to  be  had  only  down  at  Jesus'  feet. 


154  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

Jesus  is  like  a  "lamb  slain,"  mutely  gentle, 
and  yet  again  He  is  "the  Lion  of  the  tribe 
of  Judah" — firm  and  strong.  He  combines 
the  strength  of  the  lion  with  the  gentleness 
of  the  lamb. 

You,  then,  that  would  have  His  Spirit, 
confess  wherein  you  have  it  not.  Are  you 
hard,  harsh,  critical,  severe  and  unrelenting? 
Tell  Him  and  ask  Him  to  destroy  this  carnal 
mind  and  give  you  His  mind.  (Phil.  2:  5.) 
And  as  you  ask,  believe.  "All  things  are 
possible  to  him  that  believeth." 

To  maintain  this  spirit  you  must  walk  in 
the  footsteps  of  Jesus  and  feed  on  His 
words.  Only  to  those  who  seek  Him  day 
by  day  with  the  whole  heart,  and  that  with 
joy,  is  it  given  to  be  like  Him  in  these 
heavenly  tempers  and  dispositions. 

"Let  this  mind  be  in  you  which  was  also 
in  Christ  Jesus."     Amen  ! 


'so  spake/'  155 


XVII. 


so     SPAKE. 

And  it  came  to  pass  in  Iconium  that  they 
went  hotji  together  into  the  synagogue  of  the 
Jeics,  and  SO  SPAKE  that  a  great  multitude 
"both  of  the  Jews  and  also  of  the  Greeks  'believed. 
—Acts  14:  1. 

Bless  God  for  such  preachers  and  such 
preaching!  How  did  they  do  it?  What  was 
their  secret?     I  think  it  is  threefold. 

I.  Their  manner.  They  must  have  won 
the  multitude  by  the  sweetness  and  grace  and 
persuasiveness  and  earnestness  of  their  man- 
ner. They  certainly  did  not  offend  and 
shock  them  by  coarse,  vulgar,  uncouth 
speech,  or  by  a  weak  and  vacillating,  light 


156  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

and  foolish,  or  boisterous  and  domineering 
manner.  They  wanted  to  win  men,  and  they 
suited  their  manner  to  their  purpose. 

Solomon  said,  "He  that  loveth  pureness 
of  heart,  for  the  grace  of  his  lips  the  king 
shall  be  his  friend." 

This  "grace  of  the  lips"  is  not  a  thing  to 
be  despised.  It  is  rather  something  to  be 
thought  about  and  prayed  over  and  culti- 
vated. It  was  said  of  Jesus,  "They  won- 
dered at  the  gracious  words  which  proceeded 
out  of  His  mouth,"  and  a  police  captain  said 
of  Him,  "Never  man  spake  like  this  Man ;" 
and  doubtless  this  graciousness  was  not  only 
in  what  He  said,  but  also  in  the  way  He 
said  it.  His  manner  was  authoritative,  yet 
gentle;  strong,  yet  tender;  dignified,  yet 
popular  and  familiar.  You  can  say  to  a  little 
child,  "Come  here,  you  little  rascal,"  in  such 
a  sweet  manner  as  to  win  its  confidence  and 
draw  it  to  you ;  or  you  can  say,  "Come  here, 
you  darling  child,"  in  such  a  rough,  coarse 
way  as  to  fill  it  with  fear  and  drive  it  from 
you.     It  is  largely  a  matter  of  manner. 

Garrick,  the  great  actor,  was  asked  why 
he  could  so  mightily  move  men  by  fiction, 
while  preachers,  speaking  such  awful  and 
momentous  truths,  left  them  unmoved.     He 


"so   SPAKE."  157 

replied,  "They  speak  truth  as  though  it  were 
fiction,  while  I  speak  fiction  as  though  it 
were  truth."  It  was  a  matter  of  manner.  A 
woman  so  far  away  from  Whitfield  that  she 
could  not  hear  what  he  said,  was  weeping. 
A  bystander  asked  her  why  she  wept,  since 
she  knew  not  what  he  said.  "Oh,"  said  she, 
"can't  you  see  the  holy  wag  of  his  head?" 
His  manner  was  matchless.  Lawyers  plead- 
ing before  judges  and  juries,  and  political 
speakers  seeking  to  win  votes  cultivate  an 
ingratiating  manner.  Why,  then,  should  not 
men  who  are  seeking  to  save  souls  and  win 
men  to  Jesus  Christ  seek  from  God  the  best 
manner  in  which  to   do  this? 

2.  Their  matter.  I  judge  that  not  only 
was  their  manner  agreeable  and  attractive, 
but  their  subject  matter  was  interesting, 
grave,  and  unspeakably  important.  They 
preached  the  Word ;  they  reasoned  out  of  the 
Scriptures;  they  declared  that  the  prophecies 
were  fulfilled,  that  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of 
God,  of  whom  Moses  and  the  prophets  wrote 
and  spoke,  had  come,  was  crucified,  was 
buried,  but  was  risen  again,  and  that  through 
obedient  faith  in  Him  men  might  have  their 
sins  forgiven,  their  hearts  purified  and  their 


158  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

whole  being  sanctified  and  filled  with  God. 
It  was  not  stale  platitudes  they  preached, 
or  vain  babblings  about  the  Seventh  Day, 
about  baptisms  and  feet-washings  and  in- 
cense and  vestments,  or  harsh  criticisms  of 
authorities  and  "powers  that  be,"  or  divers 
and  strange  doctrines,  but  it  was  "repent- 
ance toward  God,  and  faith  toward  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ."  (Acts  20:  21.)  This  was 
the  substance  of  their  message. 

(a)  It  was  a  joyful  message.  It  was  good 
news;  it  was  a  declaration  that  God  was  so 
interested  in  men — "so  loved  the  world  that 
He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son,  that  who- 
soever believeth  on  Him  should  not  perish, 
but  have  everlasting  life ;  for  God  sent  not 
His  Son  into  the  world  to  condemn  the 
world,  but  that  the  world  through  Him 
might  be  saved."  The  war-worn,  sorrowful 
old  world  needs  such  a  joyful  message. 

(b)  It  was  an  illuminating  message.  It 
showed  them  how  to  be  saved  from  sin  and 
made  acceptable  to  God.  It  also  threw  a 
flood  of  light  into  the  grave  and  beyond, 
and  "brought  life  and  immortality  to  light," 
Jesus  was  "the  first  fruits  of  them  that  slepit." 
It   robbed   earth   of   its   loneliness,    and   the 


"so  spake/'  159 

tomb  of  its  terrors.  It  turned  the  world 
into  a  schoolroom  and  preparation  place  for 
the  Father's  house  of  many  mansions,  and 
made  Heaven  real, 

(c)  It  was  a  solemn  and  a  searching  mes- 
sage. It  called  men  to  remember  their  sins 
and  repent  of  them,  forsake  them,  and  sur- 
render themselves  no  longer  to  the  pleasures 
of  ease,  but  to  the  service  of  God.  They 
must  take  sides.  If  they  would  be  saved, 
they  must  follow  Christ  crucified.  "Every 
road  leads  two  ways."  If  they  would  put  away 
sin  and  follow  Jesus,  He  would  lead  them 
to  Heaven;  if  they  rejected  Him  they  would 
surely  go  their  own  way  to  damnation,  to 
Hell. 

3.  Their  spirit.  The  manner  may  be  ac- 
ceptable and  the  message  true,  but  if  the 
spirit  of  the  speaker  be  not  right  there  will 
hardly  be  a  "great  multitude"  of  believers. 
The  cannon  may  be  a  masterpiece  and  the 
powder  and  shot  perfect,  but  if  there  be  no 
fire,  the  enemy  need  have  no  fear.  The 
manner  may  be  uncouth  and  the  message 
fragmentary  and  faulty,  but  if  the  spirit  be 
right,  if  it  be  humble,  and  on  fire  of  love, 
believers  will  be  won. 


160  THE  soul-winner's   SECRET. 

Cataline,  a  Roman  citizen,  conspired 
against  the  State,  and  Cicero,  the  matchless 
Roman  orator,  delivered  a  series  of  orations 
against  him.  The  people  were  captivated 
by  the  eloquence  of  Cicero.  They  went  from 
the  Forum  praising  his  oratory,  lauding  his 
rhetoric,  extolling  his  gestures  and  his 
graceful  management  of  the  folds  of  his 
toga. 

Philip,  of  Macedon,  was  planning  to  in- 
vade the  States  of  Greece.  Demosthenes,  the 
Athenian  orator,  delivered  a  series  of  ora- 
tions against  him,  and  the  Greeks  went  from 
his  presence  saying,  "Let  us  go  and  fight 
Philip !" 

Doubtless  the  manner  and  matter  of  the 
two  orators  were  equally  above  criticism,  but 
they  were  as  far  apart  as  the  poles  in  spirit. 
One  sent  the  people  away  talking  glibly, 
prettily  about  himself;  the  other  sent  them 
away  filled  with  his  spirit,  fired  with  a  great 
impulse  to  die,  if  needs  be,  fighting  the  in- 
vader. 

After  all,  I  imagine  it  was  this  right  spirit, 
this  white  heat  of  soul,  this  full-orbed  heart- 
purpose  that  was  the  principal  factor  in 
winning  that  multitude  of  believers  in 
Iconium  that  day.    These  apostles  were  great 


''so   SPAKE."  161 

believers  themselves.  They  were  full  of 
glad,  triumphant  Hell-defying  and  defeating 
faith.  They  were  not  harassed  by  doubt  and 
uncertainty.  They  did  not  preach  guesses. 
They  knew  whom  they  believed  (2  Tim.  i : 
12),  and  because  they  believed  they  spoke 
(2  Cor.  4:  13),  and  "so  spake"  that  the  faith 
of  a  multitude  of  others  was  kindled  from 
the  fire  of  theirs. 

This  faith  had  also  kindled  in  their  hearts 
a  great  love. 

They  believed  the  love  of  God  in  giving 
His  Son  for  them,  and  their  hearts  were  in 
turn  filled  with  love  for  Him.  They  be- 
lieved the  dying  love  of  the  Saviour,  and 
their  hearts  were  so  constrained  with  love 
for  Him  that  they  were  prepared  to  die  for 
Him,  (Acts  20:  24;  21:  13.)  They  believed 
the  love  of  God  for  all  men,  until  they  loved 
like  Him,  and  felt  themselves  debtors  to  all 
men  (Romans  i:  14),  and  were  ready  to  be 
offered  as  a  sacrifice  for  the  salvation  of 
men.     (Phil.  2:  17.) 

Oh,  it  was  a  bright  faith  and  a  burning 
love  that  set  on  fire  the  spirits  of  these  men ! 
And  I  think  this  Christlike  spirit  moulded 
their  manner  and  m^ade  them  natural  and 
gentle  and  strong  and  true  and  intense  with 

M 


162  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

earnestness,  with  no  simper  or  whine  or 
affectation  of  false  pathos;  no  clang  of  hard- 
ness; no  sting  of  bitterness,  and  no  chill  of 
heartless  indifference.  What  school  of  ora- 
tory can  touch  and  train  the  manner  of 
an  actor  so  that  he  shall  for  an  instant 
compare  with  the  untrained,  shrinking 
mother  who  is  suddenly  fired  with  a 
quenchless  impulse  to  plead  for  the  life 
of  her  child?  The  best  teacher  of 
style  in  public  speech  is  a  heart  filled  to  burst- 
ing with  love  to  Jesus,  and  love  and  hope 
and  fear  and  faith  for  men.  A  love  that 
makes  a  man  feel  that  men  must  and  shall  be 
won  from  Hell  and  turned  to  righteousness 
and  Heaven  and  God,  will  surely,  in  due  time, 
make  the  manner  effective. 

And  it  will  also  shape  and  control,  if  it 
does  not  make  the  message.  It  is  marvellous 
the  message  men  get  whose  hearts  are  afire. 
Someone  asked  why  Mr.  Bramwell  could 
say  such  wonderful  things.  The  reply  was, 
"He  lives  so  near  the  heart  of  God  and  the 
Throne  that  he  gets  secret  messages,  and 
brings  them  down  to  us."  It  is  pitiable,  the 
flat,  insipid,  powerless,  soulless  messages 
men  manufacture  when  their  faith  is  feeble 
and  their  hearts  are  cold ! 


"so  spake/'  163 

Can  we  not,  then,  sum  up  for  ourselves  the 
secret  of  these  men  in  the  words  of  Solomon, 
"Keep  thy  heart  with  all  diligence,  for  out  of 
it  are  the  issues  of  life?" 


164  THE  soul-winner's   SECRET. 


XVIII. 


IMPORTANCE    AND    BENEFITS    OF    BIBLE    STUDY. 

If  someone  had  written  a  book  so  small  that 
it  could  be  carried  in  the  pocket,  and  so  cheap 
that  the  poorest  could  buy  it,  and  if  this  book 
explained  simply  how  anyone  who  followed 
its  directions  could  surely,  without  any 
danger  to  themselves  or  others,  gain  the 
highest  possible  honors,  the  greatest  riches, 
the  supremest  joy,  all  linked  with  long  life, 
then  I  feel  sure  that  everyone  would  want  the 
book. 

If  they  could  not  read,  they  would  do  their 
best  to  learn  in  order  to  study  it,  and  if  they 
were  too  busy  by  day,  I  think  they  would  sit 
up  late  at  night  or  rise  early  in  the  morning 
to  read  it  and  commit  it  to  memory.  What 
they  had  learned,  they  would  think  and  talk 


BIBLE    STUDY.  165 

about  through  the  day.  If  there  were  any 
parts  of  it  that  seemed  vitally  important  and 
yet  hard  to  understand,  they  would  not 
throw  the  book  away  or  go  to  careless  critics 
who  took  more  pleasure  in  pointing  out  what 
they  considered  errors  than  in  following 
what  they  and  everybody  acknowledged  to 
be  true.  Instead,  they  would  go  for  instruc- 
tion to  those  who  had  most  closely  followed 
the  directions  of  the  book,  and  most  surely 
gained  its  prizes.  Or,  better  still,  they  would 
go  to  the  author  of  the  book.  The  Bible 
is  such  a  book,  except  that  in  place  of 
worldly  honor  and  riches  and  joy,  it  offers 
heavenly;  instead  of  long  life,  it  offers  eternal 
life — a  life  of  unutterable  blessing  and  joy, 
and  that  without  end. 

God  is  its  author.  "For  the  prophecy 
came  not  in  old  time  by  the  will  of  man; 
but  holy  men  of  God  spake  as  they  were 
moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost."     (2  Peter  i :  21.) 

It  can  be  bought  for  twenty-five  cents ;  the 
New  Testament  can  be  had  for  five  cents, 
and  it  can  be  carried  in  the  pocket.  It  is  so 
simple  that  "the  wayfaring  man,  though  a 
fool,"  need  "not  err  therein."  Children  can 
understand  it,  though  philosophers  are  often 
puzzled  by  it.     Like  the  cloudy,  fiery  pillar 


166  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

that  went  with  the  Israelites  in  the  wilder- 
ness it  is  light  to  those  who  love  and  obey 
God,  but  gloomy  darkness  and  contradiction 
to  those  who  refuse  to  obey  Him. 

It  marks  an  easy,  straight  path  for  hum- 
ble souls,  but  it  is  a  rough  and  tangled 
labyrinth  to  proud  and  wayward  men.  It 
has  no  instruction,  or  blessing,  or  comfort 
for  those  who  despise  it,  but  to  those  who 
love  it  it  is  sweeter  than  honey,  and  more 
priceless  than  gold  and  precious  stones. 
It  makes  plain  the  way  whereby  sinners 
may  become  holy,  and  holiness  is  an  experi- 
ence which,  in  turn,  makes  the  Bible  plain. 
It  interprets  holiness,  and  holiness  interprets 
it. 

Of  course,  there  are  some  things  in  the 
Bible  hard  to  be  understood,  but  if  we  will 
pay  diligent  heed  the  Holy  Spirit  will  make 
it  plain  to  us  as  fast  as  we  are  able  to  under- 
stand. The  General  says  that  he  reads  the 
Bible  as  he  eats  fish,  eating  what  he  can,  and 
laying  aside  the  bones ;  but  as  the  years  go 
by  he  often  finds  that  what  he  once  could  not 
understand  spiritually  has  now  become  quite 
plain  to  him.  Things  in  the  Bible,  which  are 
hard  for  you  to  understand  to-day,  may  be- 
come clear  as  sunlight  in  years  to  come. 


BIBLE    STUDY.  167 

In  studying  the  Bible  it  will  be  found  that 
experience  in  spiritual  things  makes  the 
Book  plain  to  us.  A  little  ten-year-old  girl, 
who  had  been  much  afflicted,  prayed  to  the 
Lord  and  found  help.  Some  time  later, 
while  alone  reading  her  Bible,  she  found 
this  text :  "This  poor  man  cried  and  the 
Lord  heard  him,  and  saved  him  out  of  all 
his  troubles."  (Ps.  34:  6.)  It  so  fitted  her 
experience  that  her  heart  was  made  glad, 
and  she  pointed  it  out  to  her  mother,  and 
had  her  mother  mark  it. 

A  portion  of  the  Bible  ought  to  be  read 
carefully  and  prayerfully  and  lovingly  every 
day.  Just  as  a  fire  needs  fresh  fuel,  and  the 
body  needs  new  supplies  of  food  every  day 
so  the  soul  that  would  be  strong  and  holy 
needs  something  fresh  from  the  Bible  each 
day. 

I.  It  is  through  the  Word  of  God  that 
we  get  faith.  I  once  heard  one  of  the 
mightiest  men  of  God  I  ever  knew  say 
that  he  used  to  pray  and  pray  for  faith,  but 
one  day  he  read  this  text:  "Faith  cometh 
by  hearing,  and  hearing  by  the  Word  of 
God"  (Rom.  10:  17),  and  from  that  day  he 
began  to  read  the  Bible,  fulfilling  its  condi- 
tions and  claiming  its  promises,  and  his  faith 


168  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

grew  wonderfully.  Although  uneducated  in 
the  schools,  he  became  full  of  the  wisdom  of 
God,  and  won  many  thousands  of  souls  to 
Jesus,  raised  up  hundreds  of  workers,  in- 
spired thousands  more,  and  had  millions 
of  dollars  given  to  him  for  the  work  of 
God. 

I  have  often  heard  people  insinuate  that 
if  one  rose  from  the  dead  to  add  his  testi- 
mony to  what  the  Bible  says  that  they  might 
then  believe.  But  Jesus  denies  this.  He  says, 
"If  they  hear  not  Moses  and  the  prophets, 
neither  will  they  be  persuaded  though  one 
rose  from  the  dead."  (Luke  i6:  31.)  The 
Bible  is  that  which  brings  faith  and  strength- 
ens it,  and  not  seeing  departed  spirits,  or 
visions,  or  raptures  of  any  kind. 

When  Paul  and  Silas  were  driven  out  of 
Thessalonica  they  went  to  the  city  of  Berea 
and  preached  Jesus  there,  and  Luke  tells 
us  that  the  people  of  Berea  "were  more  noble 
than  those  of  Thessalonica,  in  that  they 
received  the  Word  with  all  readiness,  and 
searched  the  Scriptures  daily,  whether  these 
things  were  so."  And  then  he  adds  :  "There- 
fore many  of  them  believed."  (Acts  17: 
11-12.)  Belief  always  follows  an  honest 
searching  of  the   Scriptures.     If,   then,  you 


BIBLE    STUDY.  169 

would  have  strong  faith,  feed  what  faith  you 
have  on  the  Word  of  God. 

2.  If  we  are  going  astray,  the  Word  of 
God  corrects  us.  A  woman,  who  was  out 
at  service,  was  always  grumbling  and  com- 
plaining in  spite  of  the  fact  that  she  was 
treated  most  kindly.  One  day,  when  her 
mistress  was  out,  she  read  these  words  in 
her  Bible:  "Do  all  things  without  murmur- 
ings  and  disputings;  that  ye  may  be  blame- 
less and  harmless,  children  of  God  without 
blemish."  (Phil.  2:  14,  15,  R.  V.),  and  she 
felt  as  though  the  dear  Lord  Himself  had 
spoken  tender  words  of  rebuke  and  convic- 
tion to  her.  She  humbled  herself,  apologized 
to  her  mistress,  and  corrected  her  ways. 

A  lady,  who  had  been  selfishly  seeking 
her  own  way  instead  of  God's  way,  and  of- 
fering the  Lord  a  half-hearted  service,  was 
convicted  by  these  words:  "If  ye  offer  the 
blind  for  sacrifice,  is  it  not  evil?  and  if  ye 
offer  the  lame  and  sick,  is  it  not  evil?  Offer 
it  now  unto  thy  governor :  will  he  be  pleased 
with  thee,  or  accept  thy  person?"  {Ma\. 
i:  8.) 

She  saw  herself  offering  to  God  what  no 
earthly  ruler  would  accept,  and  it  broke  her 


l70  THE  soul-winner's   SECRET. 

heart,  and  led  her  to  a  sincere  repentance 
and  humble  confession  and  an  utter  surren- 
der of  herself  to  the  Lord,  until  she  felt 
His  love  flooding  her  soul.  Truly,  "all 
Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  and 
it  is  profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for 
correction,  for  instruction  in  righteousness, 
that  the  man  of  God  may  be  perfect,  thor- 
oughly furnished  unto  all  good  works."  (2 
Tim.  3 :  16,  17.) 

3.  If  we  are  ignorant,  the  Word  of  God 
instructs  us.  David  says,  "Thou  through 
Thy  commandments  hast  made  me  wiser 
than  my  enemies.  I  have  more  understand- 
ing than  all  my  teachers;  for  Thy  testimon- 
ies are  my  meditation.  I  understand  more 
than  the  ancients,  because  I  keep  Thy  pre- 
cepts.    (Ps.  119:  98-100.) 

Again  he  says,  "The  entrance  of  Thy 
words  giveth  light ;  it  giveth  understanding 
to  the  simple."     (Ps.  119:  129.) 

Some  time  ago,  out  on  the  plains  of  Min- 
nesota, I  found  a  humble  young  man,  who 
worked  on  a  farm,  who  seemed  to  me  to  be 
wonderfully  wise.  I  asked  him  his  secret, 
and  he  told  me  that  it  was  constant  study  of 
the  Word   of  God  and  prayer.     If  he  had 


BIBLE    STUDY,  l7l 

ten  minutes  to  spare  at  noon-hour,  he  did  not 
waste  it  in  foolish  talk,  or  in  reading  stories 
or  newspapers,  but  he  digged  into  his 
Bible. 

People  told  him  that  he  would  get  narrow 
if  he  did  not  read  other  books,  but  he  found 
that  they  were  the  ones  who  got  narrow,  and 
when  they  became  confused  by  the  assump- 
tions of  evolution,  spiritualism,  the  new  psy- 
chology, Dowieism,  and  the  like,  he,  although 
not  educated  in  the  schools,  had  no  difficulty 
in  solving  all  their  problems  through  his 
knowledge  of  the  Bible.  Like  David,  he 
found  himself  wiser  than  his  enemies,  his 
teachers,  and  the  elders,  through  God's 
Word. 

Jesus  said  to  certain  people  who  were  in 
error  about  certain  doctrines,  "Ye  do  err, 
not  knowing  the  Scriptures,  nor  the  power 
of  God."  Ignorance  of  the  Scriptures  and 
of  the  power  of  God  leaves  one  exposed  to 
all  sorts  of  error  and  cunning  craftiness  of 
men,  but  when  we  hide  God's  Word  in  our 
hearts,  and  have  the  genuine  experience  of 
holiness,  we  get  filled  with  His  great 
thoughts  and  are  truly  wise,  and  if  we  hum- 
bly watch  and  pray  we  are  safeguarded  from 
error. 


172  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

4.  The  Bible  gives  us  great  and  loving 
thoughts  of  God,  and  makes  our  hearts  tender 
toward  Him.  I  have  read  the  Bible  through 
many  times,  but  there  are  some  parts  of  it 
that  so  reveal  the  love  of  God  in  Christ  to 
me  that  I  can  never  read  them'  without 
tears. 

A  friend  went  into  the  quarters  of  two  of 
our  Swedish  officers,  and  found  them  sitting 
at  the  tables  with  open  Bibles,  weeping.  He 
thought  they  were  in  great  sorrow,  and  asked 
them  what  was  their  trouble.  They  said, 
"Oh,  we  are  weeping  for  joy  at  the  goodness 
of  God  !  See  here  what  we  have  read :  'The 
very  hairs  of  your  head  are  all  numbered.' 
Think  how  good  God  is,  and  how  He  cares 
for  us  to  number  the  very  hairs  of  our 
heads." 

I  found  a  dear  young  friend  weeping  one 
day,  but  they  were  tears  of  joy.  "Look  here/* 
he  said,  "at  what  the  Lord  has  said  to  me  to- 
day: 'Come  unto  Me,  all  ye  that  labor,  and 
are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest. 
Take  My  yoke  upon  you,  and  learn  of  Me, 
and  ye  shall  find  rest  to  your  souls.'  My 
father  died,"  he  said,  "and  my  eyes  were  dry, 
and  my  mother  died,  and  I  couldn't  shed  a 
tear.    My  heart  was  hard,  but  God  has  made 


BIBLE    STUDY.  173 

my  heart  soft,  and  now  I  weep  for  joy  as  I 
read  His  tender,  loving  words." 

Truly  God's  Word  fills  the  humble,  believ- 
ing heart  with  joy.  'Thy  words  were  found, 
and  I  did  eat  them ;  and  Thy  word  was  unto 
me  the  joy  and  rejoicing  of  my  heart,"  said 
Jeremiah. 

The  truth  is,  that  we  love  the  Lord  no 
better  than  we  love  His  Word.  In  propor- 
tion as  the  Word  is  precious  to  us,  so  is 
He  Himself  precious  to  us. 

5.  Do  you  want  to  know  Jesus  better? 
Read  the  Bible.  The  Bible,  under  the  il- 
lumination of  the  Holy  Spirit,  reveals  Him 
to  us.  It  is  there  that  we  see  Him  a  tender 
babe,  born  in  a  manger,  in  a  stable  among 
the  cattle,  and  hunted  for  His  life  by  cruel 
Herod. 

It  is  there  that  we  find  Him  humbly  toil- 
ing at  the  carpenter's  bench,  fasting  and 
praying,  and  tempted  by  the  devil  in  all  points 
like  as  we  are,  doing  good,  easy  to  be  en- 
treated, full  of  mercy  and  of  the  spirit  of  for- 
giving love,  having  compassion  on  the  poor 
and  sorrowful  and  sinful,  preaching  the 
Gospel,  warning  men  of  the  judgment  to 
come,  declaring  both  the  love  and  the  wrath. 


174  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

the  goodness  and  the  severity  of  God,  and  at 
last  laying  down  His  life  a  sacrifice  for  our 
sins. 

It  is  there  that  we  see  the  open  grave,  the 
risen  Saviour,  the  ascending,  glorified  Lord, 
into  whose  hands  is  given  all  power  in 
Heaven  and  earth  to  be  used  in  behalf  of  His 
holy  ones  on  earth;  to  be  used  for  their  de- 
fense, their  guidance,  their  spiritual  educa- 
tion, their  deliverance,  their  support,  their 
warfare,  their  uttermost  salvation,  and  their 
final  triumph  over  all  the  power  of  the  enemy, 
over  all  earth  and  Hell.  Read  the  Bible  to 
see  and  know  Jesus. 

6.  Do  you  want  to  pray  with  more  faith 
and  power?  Read  the  Bible.  It  is  there 
that  you  will  learn  God's  will,  become  ac- 
quainted with  His  mind,  and  find  His  prom- 
ises to  encourage  your  faith. 

7.  Do  you  want  to  speak  to  the  hearts  of 
saints  and  sinners  with  more  effect?  Read 
the  Bible.  It  is  there  that  you  will  get  truth 
that  is  sharper  than  a  two-edged  sword,  that 
is  like  a  fire  and  a  hammer.  It  is  there  that 
you  will  get  truth  that  will  comfort  mourners, 
arouse  the  careless,  instruct  the  ignorant, 
enlighten  the  perplexed,  lead  the  blind,  en- 


BIBLE    STUDY.  175 

courage  the  fainthearted,  rest  the  weary, 
steady  the  young,  renew  the  old,  that  will 
convict  and  convert  and  sanctify  and  fill 
the  heart  with  perfect  assurance. 

8.  Do  you  want  to  hold  out  faithful  to  the 
end,  and  not  make  shipwreck  of  faith? 

Read  the  Bible,  and  "observe  to  do  accord- 
ing to  all  that  is  written  therein ;  for  then 
thou  shalt  make  thy  way  prosperous,  and 
then  thou  shalt  have  good  success."  (Josh, 
i:  8.) 

A  recent  writer  has  well  said,  "Of  course, 
it  is  much  easier,  and  therefore  much  more 
agreeable  to  our  spiritual  laziness,  to  go  to  a 
convention  or  revival  meeting  and  claim  a 
filling  of  the  Holy  Spirit  than  it  is  to  peg 
along  day  after  day,  month  after  month,  year 
after  year,  digging  into  the  Word  of  God. 
But  a  'filling  of  the  Spirit'  that  is  not  main- 
tained by  a  persistent  study  of  the  Word, 
will  soon  vanish,"  just  as  a  fire  that  does  not 
daily  receive  fresh  supplies  of  coal  will  go 
out,  or  a  man  that  is  not  properly  fed  will 
starve.  Oh,  the  blessings  that  have  been  lost 
because  they  have  not  been  renewed  day  by 
day  by  a  loving  study  of  God's  blessed  Word ! 

"Search  the   Scriptures,"   said  Jesus.     Do 


176  THE  soul-winner's   SECRET. 

not  think  you  are  too  young,  or  too  ignorant, 
or  too  busy.  Do  your  best,  and  stick  to  it, 
and  the  Holy  Spirit  will  become  your  teacher, 
and  you  shall  become  wise  unto  everlasting 
life.     (2  Tim.  3:  15-17.) 


USE  OF  HIS  BIBLE.  177 


XIX. 


KING    DAVID  S    USE    OF    HIS    BIBLE. 

David  said,  "Princes  also  did  sit  and  speak 
against  me;  but  Thy  servant  did  meditate  in 
Thy  statutes.  Thy  testimonies  are  also  my  de- 
light and  my  counsellors/'    (Psalms  119:  23-24.) 

What  a  picture!  Evil  men  are  plotting 
against  him,  digging  a  pit  for  him,  gnashing 
on  him  with  their  teeth,  but  he  sits  quietly- 
meditating  on  God's  statutes.  These  statutes 
are  his  counsellors.  He  talks  over  his  affairs 
with  them  and  finds  out  what  they  have  to 
say.  Abraham  and  Isaac  and  Jacob  and 
Moses  and  Joshua  are  his  advisers.  To  be 
sure  they  are  dead,  but  they  live  more  vitally 
in  the  truths  they  spoke  and  exemplified  than 
they  did  in  their  bodies. 

Paul  says,  in  writing  to  the  Romans, 
"Whatsoever  things  were   written   aforetime 

N 


178  THE  soul-winner's  secret. 

were  written  for  our  learning;  that  we 
through  patience  and  comfort  of  the  Scrip- 
tures might  have  hope."  (Rom.  15:  4), 
David  discovered  this  blessed  secret  for  him- 
self, and  although  his  Bible  was  much  more 
limited  than  ours,  he  made  glorious  use  of  it. 
Here  are  some  of  the  blessings  he  got  from 
it. 

I.  Wisdom  and  understanding.  We  are 
very  foolish  and  shortsighted,  but  the 
wisdom  and  foresight  of  God  are  at  the  dis- 
posal of  our  faith.  David  says,  "Thou, 
through  Thy  commandments  hast  made  me 
wiser  than  mine  enemies ;  for  they  are  ever 
with  me.  I  have  more  understanding  than 
all  my  teachers;  for  Thy  testimonies  are  my 
meditation.  I  understand  more  than  the 
ancients,  because  I  keep  Thy  precepts."  I 
have  often  been  amazed  and  delighted  at  the 
keen  insight  and  uncommon  common  sense 
of  otherwise  ignorant  and  illiterate  men  and 
women  who  have  been  full  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  who  were  lovers  and  diligent 
students  of  their  Bibles.  They  have  more 
wisdom  than  their  teachers,  and  easily  outwit 
and  confound  all  their  enemies.  Paul  in 
writing  to  Timothy  said,  "The  Holy  Scrip- 
tures are  able  to  make  thee  wise  unto  salva- 


USE  OF  HIS  BIBLE.  179 

tion  through  faith  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus." 
(2  Tim.  3:   15.) 

2.  Joy.  "The  joy  of  the  Lord  is  your 
strength,"   said   Nehemiah. 

"But  how  am  I  to  get  this  joy?"  you  ask. 
By  receiving  the  Lord  of  joy  Himself  into 
your  heart,  which  you  do  by  hearty  faith 
in  what  He  says.  Once  upon  a  time  my 
wife  said  "Yes,"  and  because  I  believed  and 
acted  upon  my  faith,  that  filled  me  with  joy 
that  has  been  increasing  for  years.  God  has 
said  great  things,  given  us  "exceeding  great 
and  precious  promises."  If  we  believe  them 
and  act  upon  our  faith  He  will  come  into 
our  lives  and  our  joy  shall  be  full,  (i  John 
1:4.)  Hear  David,  "I  have  rejoiced  in  the 
way  of  Thy  testimonies  as  much  as  in  all 
riches."  "I  rejoice  at  Thy  Word,  as  one  that 
findeth  great  spoil." 

The  Word  of  God  was  the  well  of  salva- 
tion from  which  David  drew  water  with  joy. 
There  is  the  outer  shell  of  the  letter  and 
the  inner  kernel  of  spirit  and  life  in  the 
Word  of  God.  Those  who  have  learned  the 
secret  of  getting  at  the  kernel  in  a  text  and 
hearing  the  whisper  of  the  voice  of  Jesus 
in  it,  and  have  caught  the  flash  of  the  love- 


180  THE  soul-winner's   SECRET. 

light  and  tender  sympathy  of  His  eye  through 
it,  will  understand  David's  joy. 

3.  Hope.  Faith  has  to  do  with  the  pres- 
ent, hope  with  the  future.  Many  a  man 
fails,  not  because  of  the  present  trouble,  but 
because  the  future  looks  dark  and  his  hope 
fails,  and  in  discouragement  he  casts  away 
his  shield  of  faith  and  gives  up  the  fight. 
Well  does  Paul  name  hope  as  one  of  the 
three  graces.  He  who  wins  in  the  battle 
of  life  must  "hope  to  the  end."  During  the 
darkest  days  of  the  Revolution,  Washington 
never  lost  hope.  Amid  the  awful  suspense 
and  uncertainties  of  the  Civil  War,  Lincoln 
remained  confident  and  hoped  on.  And  so 
it  was  with  David.  He  passed  through  dark 
hours.  Taken  from  the  quiet,  sheltered  life 
of  a  shepherd,  he  was  placed  in  a  palace 
and  made  son-in-law  to  the  king,  only  to  be 
hated  and  hunted  for  his  life  for  years,  while 
his  wife  was  given  to  another.  His  own  peo- 
ple murmured  against  him  and  would  have 
stoned  him..  His  own  son  rebelled  against 
him  and  sought  his  life,  until  in  the  agony 
and  perplexity  of  his  soul  he  cried  out,  "All 
Thy  waves  and  Thy  billows  have  gone  over 
me." 


USE  OF  HIS  BIBLE.  181 

But  then  he  remembered  God's  promises 
and  cried  out  again,  "Remember  Thy  word 
unto  Thy  servant,  upon  which  Thou  hast 
caused  me  to  hope."  My  soul  fainteth  for 
Thy  salvation ;  but  I  hope  in  Thy  word,"  and 
then  he  questions  and  assures  his  soul,  "Why 
art  thou  cast  down,  O  my  soul?  and  why 
art  thou  disquieted  within  me?  Hope  thou 
in  God;  for  I  shall  yet  praise  Him,  who  is 
the  health  of  my  countenance  and  my  God." 

4.  Comfort.  The  idea  of  comfort  in  the 
Bible  is  not  simply  to  soothe,  but  to  aid, 
strengthen,  inspire  and  encourage.  And 
when  God  comforts  us  He  draws  nigh  to 
us  and  draws  us  nigh  to  Himself,  and  wipes 
away  our  tears  and  assures  and  strengthens 
our  hearts  and  fills  us  with  a  sense  of  His 
presence  and  almighty  sufficiency,  until  our 
poor  little  fears  and  sorrows  vanish  and  a 
great  calm,  a  river  of  joy,  and  a  holy  courage 
take  possession  of  our  souls.  In  youth  we 
start  out  strong  and  defiant,  asking  only  a 
platform  on  which  to  display  and  prove  our 
powers,  but  sooner  or  later  we  each  come 
to  that  pathetic  spot  where  our  heads  droop 
and  our  hearts  fail  and  we  want  comfort. 
It    was    so    with    Paul,    and    he    cries    out, 


182  THE  soul-winner's   SECRET. 

"Blessed  be  God,  even  the  Father  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  Father  of  mercies  and 
the  God  of  all  comfort,  who  comforteth  us 
in  all  our  tribulations.  .  .  .  For  as  the 
sufferings  of  Christ  abound  in  us,  so  our 
consolation  also  aboundeth  by  Christ."  And 
even  our  blessed  Lord  Himself  was  strength- 
ened by  an  angel  in  the  days  of  His  flesh. 
(Matt.  22:  43.) 

Shall  we  not  follow  David  in  his  diligent 
study  of  God's  truth,  and  shall  we  not  thank 
God  for  His  immeasurable  and  unspeakable 
gift,  and  prize  as  never  before  the  infinite 
treasure  He  has  bestowed  upon  us  in  His 
Word? 


SIX    CARDINAL    POINTS. 


Self  Filling 
Self  Cleaning 
Simplicity 


"The  POST 
FOUNTAIN  PEN. 


THE.     OLD 


FOUNTAIN    PLN     IS    A 


THING  or  THE,  PAST. 

Advanced  mechanism  places  the 
"  POST  "  Pen  as  the  foremost  one 
of  the  world. 

"IT'S  THE  PEN  OF  ALL  PENS, 

and  is  receiving  more  favorable 
comments    to-day   than   all 
other  makes  in  the  market. 
It's  the  only  Pen  awarded 
a  gold  medal  and  diploma 
at  the  Academie  Paris- 
ienne   Inventeurs     In 
dustrials     et     Expo- 
sants,  Paris. 

RELIANCE 

Trading    Co., 

(Incor.) 
130-124 
W.  14th  St., 
New    York 
Gty 


We 

take 
your 
Old  Pen 
In 
Exchange. 
OUR 
UNIQUE  PLAN. 
As  a  special  in- 
ducement to  in- 
troducethe'TOST" 
we  have  dec  id  ed  to 
supply     a    limited 
number  of  them   in 
EXCHANGE    for    other 
makes  at  a  merely  nom- 
inal cash  difference.  Our 
offer  enables    you   to  rid 
yourself  of  your  old  penand 
have  the  BEST.  The' POST" 
has  been  endorsedby  General 
Lew  Wallace.  Dr.  Lyman  Ab- 
bott, Mr.  Sankey,  H.M.  Edward 
VIL,    King    of    Great    Britain, 
Commander    Booth  Tucker    and 
hundreds    of    others,  also   recom- 
mended by  over  200  of    America's 
foremost  magazines. 


WRITE 
US. 


Reliability 
No  Leaking 
Durability 


OVER   $6,000.00 

Is  the  amount  of  Commission  we  paid 
to  our  Agents  on  their  sales  of 

WALL  MOTTOES 

XD-uxrlxxs    X902. 

WHY  DO  YOU  NOT  BECOME  AN  AGENT  ? 


TheLOSB 
shall  preserve 

^^  THEE  ^m 
FROMALLEVIL. 


Bright,  energetic  people  wanted  everywhere  to  sell 
these  beautiful  mottoes.  Full  particulars  will  be  sent 
free  with  our  catalogue  containing  over  500  different 
styles  to  select  from 

n|F  OTHERS:sUCCEED,  WHY  NOT  YOU? 

Address  all  orders  to 

TRADE  SECRETARY, 

120  W.   1 4th  St.,  New  York  City. 


8    m  21411 

-    nn      no  inn  un      KlJ 


1  1012  01160  3364 


DATE  DUE 


Demco,  Inc.  38-293 


